Border policemen may have beat several illegal Palestinian workers in Jaffa on Wednesday before one worker was shot and killed, according to information emerging from a probe of the incident.

Sources in the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Department (PID) said that the department has almost completed its inquiry into the shooting of Ayad Abu Aya, 29, of Tarqumiyeh in the West Bank. It is now considering whether to indict the policeman who shot him and if so, on what charges.

A Border Police unit rounding up illegal laborers in the Jaffa area on Wednesday came across some Palestinians suspected of being in Israel illegally. One of the policemen then shot and killed Abu Aya, who was one of the workers. A police statement said afterward that Abu Aya had tried to grab the policeman's gun in an escape attempt, and that during the ensuing struggle, a bullet was discharged and hit the Palestinian, who later died.

	Advertisement

However, the policeman broke under questioning and confessed that he had drawn his weapon without being provoked by the Palestinian or anyone else. The PID also found that the weapon was fired while the policeman was still holding it.

PID investigators are now examining whether the shooting was accidental or intentional. The officer has been placed under house arrest. It seemed to be an open and shut case: early Wednesday morning a Palestinian working illegally in Jaffa panicked when caught by police, and tried to grab a policeman's gun, which misfired, killing him. But within a few hours, the policeman confessed that the worker did not attack the policeman who shot and killed him.