PA security officer, 44, killed in olive harvest clash near Nablus

A Palestinian Authority security officer was killed on Wednesday during a confrontation between Palestinians, Israeli civilians and Israeli forces in the northern West Bank, near the village of Burqa northwest of Nablus. Palestinian channels named him as Ali al-Bazari, 44, who served with the National Security Forces of the Palestinian Authority, according to Abu Ali Express, which relayed their reports that he died from the fire of Israeli troops and settlers in a clash connected to the olive harvest.

The Israel Defense Forces gave a different account. In its statement, the IDF spokesperson said soldiers and Border Police officers were sent to the Bazariya area after a report that stones had been thrown at an Israeli civilian, who was hurt. The military said a confrontation followed involving dozens of Palestinians and Israeli civilians, and that while the wounded Israeli was being evacuated, a security officer and a second Israeli civilian fired their weapons. The Times of Israel reported the IDF as saying a commander in the area spotted a man it called a terrorist running toward him holding a suspicious object, and "neutralized him." The army also said it had arrested several Palestinians it suspected of stone throwing.

Two accounts of how he died

The reports do not agree on who fired the fatal shot or why. Palestinian outlets, as cited by Abu Ali Express, attributed the death jointly to the army and to settlers. The IDF statement attributes it to one of its commanders, who it says fired at a man approaching him with an object it did not describe further. The same statement also says two other people, an Israeli security officer and an Israeli civilian, opened fire during the incident, without saying at whom or with what result.

The Hebrew news channel News.co.il put the officer's description in quotation marks, calling him a "Palestinian policeman" killed by IDF fire, and described the incident as a serious attack on Jews in the area of Shavei Shomron, an Israeli settlement in the same part of the West Bank. A later Abu Ali Express post, citing the IDF spokesperson, said the Palestinian officer had run toward a commander, an IDF soldier, with a suspicious object in his hands. Ynet's alert service carried the army's line that forces had acted in Bazariya after stone throwing and that an assailant had been neutralized.

The settlers' version

Abu Ali Express also published an account it attributed to people in the Israeli settlement movement. In that version, a shepherd from the Brit Avraham farm was grazing a flock near the old railway station at Sebastia when dozens of Arabs from Burqa, Ramin and Bazariya, who according to this account had come to the area under cover of the olive harvest, attacked him with stones. The shepherd then called in the army, according to the same account. This version has not been confirmed by the IDF or by Palestinian outlets in the material available.

Where this happened

Burqa, Bazariya, Ramin and Sebastia are Palestinian villages in the hills around Nablus, one of the largest Palestinian cities in the northern West Bank. Israelis commonly refer to this region by its biblical name, Samaria (Shomron in Hebrew), and the IDF's Samaria Brigade is responsible for security there. The area contains both Palestinian villages and Israeli settlements, along with small agricultural outposts and farms run by settlers, such as the one named in the settler account. The reports place the incident variously at Burqa, at Bazariya and near Sebastia; these are neighbouring locations, and the reports do not give a precise spot.

Who was involved

The Palestinian Authority's National Security Forces are the largest branch of the Authority's security services, which operate in parts of the West Bank under the Authority's control. It is uncommon for a serving member to be killed in a confrontation with Israeli forces, which gives incidents like this added weight between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The reports do not say whether al-Bazari was on duty or present in an official capacity.

The Israel Border Police, known in Hebrew as Magav, is a paramilitary arm of the Israel Police that frequently operates alongside the army in the West Bank. In IDF statements, the word "neutralized" is used for a person shot to stop a perceived threat, and does not by itself indicate whether the person was killed or wounded; in this case Palestinian outlets and The Times of Israel describe the man as dead.

The olive harvest

The olive harvest each autumn is a central economic and cultural event for Palestinian farmers, and it regularly brings villagers into groves close to settlements and outposts. Friction between harvesters, settlers and troops during the season is a recurring feature of West Bank reporting. The Palestinian reports framed this clash as tied to the harvest, while the settler account described the harvest as cover for an attack.

What the reports do not say

• None of the reports describes the suspicious object the IDF says the man was carrying.
• The reports do not say how badly the Israeli civilian was hurt, or whether anyone else was wounded.
• It is not stated whether the shots fired by the Israeli security officer and the second civilian hit anyone.
• The number of Palestinians detained is not given beyond "several."
• No report mentions an investigation, or any response from the Palestinian Authority itself.