The brother of a Palestinian man killed by Border Police in Jaffa on Wednesday said the officer had opened fire without any provocation from the victim.

"The officer shot my brother when he was laying on the floor, his head down," Murad Abu Aya said. "We are not terrorists, we can me here to work. Do you want us to steal? You want us to be terrorists? We are never given permits even though we ask," he said.

The man was killed under disputed circumstances during a round up of illegal laborers in the flea market in Jaffa on Wednesday morning.

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The Justice Ministry's Police Investigative Unit (PID) has refuted the version of events given by the Border Police officer who killed the Palestinian.

Police said the Palestinian, a 29-year old West Bank Palestinian from Tarqumiya who worked in a building site next to the Jaffa flea market, was shot after he tried to steal a rifle from one of the officers. During the struggle the gun went off, fatally wounding the Palestinian, a police spokesman said.

However, the PID investigation found that, contrary to the policeman's initial testimony the officer illegally used his weapon thus causing the death of the Palestinian.

Over the course of the investigation, the policeman changed his testimony, and stated that he fired his weapon without a struggle or any sort of provocation from the victim or his friends.

Upon hearing of the incident, a PID team arrived on the scene and opened an investigation, including gathering testimony from witnesses and evidence from the crime scene.

The team is seeking to determine whether or not the shooting happened as the policeman testified, or if it was an unintentional discharge of the weapon, or an intentional shooting on the part of the policeman.

Neighbors claim they heard police shouting "stop or I'll shoot" before shots were heard, implying that the shooting had been deliberate and not accidental, as police claim.

The policeman is currently being held under house arrest.

Arab MK Taleb El-Sana (Ra'am-Ta'al) blamed police for having a "light finger on the trigger."

"It appears the police have not learned the lessons of October 2000," he said, referring to events in which police shot dead 13 unarmed Israeli Arabs during protests in the north following the outbreak of the intifada.