Israeli Troops Kill an Armed Palestinian Homeowner

After thieves broke into Mahmoud Asad Abdallah’s house a year ago, the elderly Palestinian armed himself and began patrolling his roof at night, determined to protect his family and his property.

On Wednesday, his vigilance cost him his life.

Israeli troops shot to death Abdallah, a 72-year-old American citizen who lived for years in the U.S. Virgin Islands, during a predawn raid on his village. An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers opened fire after Abdallah shot in their direction from the roof of his two-story home.

The shooting came as both Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials are warning of increased tension in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after last month’s failed Camp David peace summit.

Stunned family members received a stream of mourners at their home after the shooting and tried to make sense of Abdallah’s death.

Hisham Abdallah said his father was a victim of the West Bank’s divided rule, its growing lawlessness and an Israeli occupation that continues to shape the fate of Palestinians even as the Jewish state negotiates away more chunks of territory to the Palestinians.

“They are still just killing Palestinians and destroying their lives,” Abdallah said bitterly. “This is just another sad story. It just happened to be my father.”

The Israeli army spokesman said the shooting was accidental, and he defended the troops’ actions as appropriate under the circumstances.

“It was a mistake,” said Maj. Yarden Vatikay. “We did not intend to shoot, and we did not intend to be shot at. I could only think that he would not shoot at an army force if he knew it was an army force. That would be suicidal.”

But Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of Israel’s parliament, denounced the slaying as a terrorist act and sent a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Barak demanding an investigation.

The younger Abdallah, a reporter for the Agence France-Press news service, said he had often argued with his father about the all-night patrols on the roof of the elegant home the senior Abdallah built in 1982 atop a hill.

Surda, where the family lives, is a small and wealthy village about two miles north of Ramallah. Many of the villagers are American citizens--Palestinians who succeeded in the United States and returned to the village to build large stone houses on its slopes.

Mahmoud Abdallah, a tribal court arbitrator and onetime chief of the village, built one of the grandest homes “up high, where everyone could see him and come to him,” his son said.

Surda lies within a zone where Israel controls security and the Palestinian Authority runs civil affairs. In practical terms, Palestinians in the village said, that means it has no civilian police force.

So when thieves broke into the elder Abdallah’s house, his son said, Mahmoud Abdallah felt he had no choice but to arm himself. At night, Hisham Abdallah said, his father would stay awake, pacing the roof until dawn.

Early Wednesday, his father was back on the roof when several soldiers, who Vatikay said were wearing uniforms, helmets and bulletproof vests, approached the house on foot. The elder Abdallah apparently fired--no one knows whether directly at the troops or into the air. The soldiers fired back, striking him in the face.

Bullet holes pocked the front windows of the home where, on Wednesday, Hisham Abdallah described what happened after his father was hit. It took an hour, Abdallah said, for the army to bring in one of its ambulances to transport the dying man to an Israeli hospital.

The family had to negotiate with troops to be allowed to carry Mahmoud Abdallah to the road outside the house and leave him there before a medic attended to him.

Vatikay confirmed that “it took time” before the troops were certain they were not under threat from the family.

Hisham Abdallah said he was taken to the nearby Ramallah army headquarters and interrogated for six hours. He said a member of Israel’s General Security Service, or Shin Bet, told him that the troops had been planning to arrest him for suspected involvement with Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim movement that fought against Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. Abdallah said he is not a Hezbollah activist.