Wheelchair-Bound Palestinian’s Killing Gets New Probe By Israel
Ibrahim Abu Thurayya Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces is reopening an investigation into the killing in Gaza of a prominent wheelchair-bound Palestinian protester — that it originally suggested was likely not its fault.
Ibrahim Abu Thurayya has been a regular presence at protests at Gaza’s border with Israel. Images of him in his wheelchair waving a Palestinian flag have become a symbol of resistance.
Abu Thurayya, 29, was shot in the head while demonstrating in Gaza on Dec. 15 during protests against President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Abu Thurayya had said he lost his legs in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza in 2008, though video documentation shows that that he was wounded on April 11, 2008, during clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian operatives in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Israel’s military said no live fire was aimed at Abu Thurayya and it was impossible to determine the cause of death. It said its investigation was hindered by the refusal of Palestinian authorities to share details of his injuries.
In announcing the opening of a criminal investigation into Abu Thurayya’s death, the IDF said that it had received new information from groups inside Gaza.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
