New York – Palestinian mother Mahdia Hammad was driving home to feed her baby on Christmas Day when Israeli border troops opened fire at her car dozens of times landing 17 deadly shots in her body.
Israeli Border Policemen allegedly signaled Hammad to stop her vehicle, but she continued to drive slowly in a quiet residential street in the town of Silwad, north of Ramallah, according to Israel’s Haaretz news.
Forty-year-old Mahdia was driving her Hyundai Elantra back home after visiting her sister Samira on the Israeli-occupied side of Silwad. Mahdia was trying to return to her four children and feed her 10-month-old baby.
Israeli police claimed she tried to run over the border patrol, yet, her husband Abid claimed she was an “inexperienced driver” who got rattled by the sight of the Israeli troops.
Her sister Samira said that Mahdia was in such a hurry to get home before her baby woke up that she did not even stay for coffee.
Field-workers for the International Red Cross and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, surveyed the scene and took testimonies from residents who witnessed the incident.
A Mitsubishi jeep with construction workers declared they tried to tell Hammad to turn around at the sight of the border police, but she ignored them, possibly because her windows were up and she did not hear them. Her husband agreed saying she had hearing problems.
Eyewitnesses told that Mahdia had been shot and killed by the Israelis before they kept firing dozens of shots at her car while it rolled down the street with her dead body inside.
The testimonies indicate that there were eight Border Policemen on the street who opened fire 20-30 meters away from her car.
One eyewitness said that he saw Mahdia raise her hand inside the car, possibly to signal the Israeli men to stoop shooting at her. Regardless of her plea, the men kept shooting and killed her.
Another officer was seen by residents approaching her car after it was evident that she was dead, and sprayed her head with more bullets.
The Palestinian couple’s eldest son Zakariya, 20, discovered the dead body of his mother when he saw the bullet-riddled family vehicle at a distance and rushed to see who had been driving it.
Family relative Yihyeh Mubarak who was visiting from the U.S., said the border police had him at gunpoint and did not let him approach the car to take Mahdia to the hospital.
According to the same source, the Israeli troops seized her car and dead body and prevented everyone, including the ambulance driver, from getting close to the scene.
Mubarak received Mahdia’s body on Friday night from the Civil Administration’s Beit El base. The Hammad’s family vehicle has not yet been returned to Adib, nor has his work computer that was inside the car.
Mahdia was a housewife and mother. Her husband, Adib, works as an inspector for a construction company, the paper noted.
