A person was killed and his father was
wounded when masked gunmen attempted to rob al-Awda Biscuit Factory in Deir
al-Balah. Three for the gunmen were also
injured during the confrontation with the factory’s owners.
According to investigations conducted by
the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 19:40 on
Wednesday, 31 July 2013, 4 masked gunmen stormed a barrack that is close to
al-Awda Biscuit Factory in the east of Deir al-Balah. They held the guard, Ameer Baraka, after
beating him, and forced him to move before them towards the gate of the factory
and the house adjacent to it.
Immediately, the factory’s owner, Mohammed ‘Olayan al-Tilbani, 61,
noticed what was going on, as he saw the gunmen taking the guard towards the
door of the house. According to
al-Tilbani, he closed the door of his flat on the second floor of the house,
and asked all members of his family to gather in one room. When the gunmen stepped on the stairs, they
called on al-Tilbani to give them the key of his car, but he refused and fired
from his pistol into the air.
Immediately, the gunmen broke the door of the flat and fired inside
it. As a result, al-Tilbani’s son,
Olayan, 26, was instantly killed by a bullet to the head. An exchange of fire erupted between the two
sides, during which al-Tilbani was injured by shrapnel to the ear, and 3 of the
gunmen were also injured. Soon, the
police arrived at the scene and arrested the four gunmen. The three injured gunmen were taken to the
hospital for medical treatment under the police’s custody.
According to the Ministry of Interior’s
website, the police opened an investigation into this crime, while the Attorney
General, Counselor Ismail Jaber, instructed prosecutors to immediately question
the murderers who were arrested by the police.
PCHR strongly condemns this heinous
crime, and expresses concern over the proliferation of weapons and breaches of
the rule of law. PCHR fully support
efforts to confront this phenomenon and prosecute criminals according to legal
and human rights standards.
