Ramallah: Israeli colonists have been accused of killing 32-year-old Palestinian bus driver, Yousef Hassan Al Ramouni after his body was discovered hanging in the bus.
Al Ramouni was the father of two children and has been working for the Israeli Egged company for the past five years. The last route he was working on was the 57 route where a group of five suspected colonists attacked him, tortured him and eventually hung him with a plastic cord.
Eye-witness accounts as well as a video of his body showing signs of torture has been uploaded on social media and is expected to go viral. Another video two weeks ago of a Palestinian youth being shot in the back in Kafr Kana in the 1948 areas by Israeli police also went viral.
Al Ramouni’s colleague was waiting for him with two cups of tea, but after he realised the his friend hadn’t emerged from the bus he went in to check. “When I approached the bus, I knocked on the window assuming Al Ramouni was sleeping or that it was a joke, but I noticed that Al Ramouni was tied to his seat,” said the colleague.
He said it was only then that he realised that Al Ramouni was hanged. “I started shouting hysterically and many drivers gathered at the scene and opened the bus to reach Al Ramouni,” he said. His colleague reported the incident and Israeli occupation forces transported Al Ramouni’s body to the Hadassah Hospital where he was declared dead.
Israeli occupation forces have said there were no signs of torture to his body and have officially referred to the incident as a suicide.
Family members and the Palestinian National Authority say this is not true, pointing to bruise and burn marks on the victim’s neck. PNA judge Hassan Al Habbash says Al Ramouni was murdered and the incident was a premeditated.
“This is a horrible and barbaric war crime which clearly shows the Israeli mentality that rules nowadays,” he said in a statement. “This crime also shows the Jewish and colonist hostility towards any Palestinian and Muslim especially in the current climate of incitement in Israel.”
Al Habbash said that this crime once again highlights the necessity of providing Jerusalemites with necessary protection against Israeli brutality and aggressiveness, underlining the importance of putting the criminals who tortured and killed Al Ramouni.
“Israeli incitement and regular killing of Palestinians will surely lead to a war of religion in the region,” he said, stressing that the daily aggression against Palestinians will have serious consequences.
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