The Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, has said that the shooting of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy on Tuesday night was “deliberate, entirely unjustified and a direct result of military policy”.

The group’s report gave details of the incident during which Mahmoud Badran was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers while returning from a swimming pool with friends.

“The shots were fired at a car with seven passengers inside, who were making their way back from a night out at a water park,” reported B’Tselem.

Israeli soldiers shot Palestinian boy ‘deliberately’, claims B’Tselem https://t.co/JtJ0yvR7jF

— Ibrahim Hewitt (@ibrahimhewitt56) June 25, 2016

“The military initially announced the soldiers had ‘targeted terrorists who were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli cars on Road 443’, but later changed its version and stated the boy had been ‘mistakenly’ killed.”

The organisation’s field-researcher indicated that “the soldiers used heavy fire against the moving car without any justification”.

Most of the passengers in the car were hit by the shots, including the driver, who lost control and crashed into a wall. “Five of the seven passengers were hit in the shooting: Mahmoud Badran was killed instantly, four passengers were injured”, MEMO reported.

Mahmoud Badran was buried yesterday, with thousands who attended his funeral.

(MEMO, PC)