Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian driver after he obeyed their orders to stop, and a sanitation worker who happened to be there as well
5 January 2026
On Saturday evening, 6 December 2025, eight soldiers advanced along Be’er Sheva Street in Hebron, stopping vehicles and searching shops in the area. The soldiers confiscated the keys of at least two of the vehicles they stopped and left the drivers sitting inside them. At around 9:00 P.M., when the soldiers reached the intersection leading to Wadi a-Tuffah Street and Bab a-Zawiya, a car passed on the street. Its driver, Ahmad Rajabi, 17, came from Wadi a-Tuffah Street and turned onto Be’er Sheva Street, on his way from his home in the Jabal a-Sharif area to visit a friend at al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron. The car belonged to relatives of his who are residents of East Jerusalem and had yellow (Israeli) license plates.
After Rajabi passed the soldiers and drove a few meters further, they shouted at him to stop. With a concrete barrier between his car and the soldiers, Rajabi backed up slowly. At that point, for no apparent reason, one of the soldiers fired several shots in the air, and then another soldier ran toward the car with his rifle aimed at Rajabi and tried to open the car door. Rajabi, who was apparently frightened by the gunfire and by the soldier charging at him, continued backing up, and hit the soldier who was trying to open the door. Immediately afterward, seven soldiers fired a barrage at the car. As a result of this indiscriminate gunfire, Ziad Abu Dawood, 53, a sanitation worker employed by the Hebron Municipality who was there as part of his job, was also fatally hit. Rajabi stopped, tried to drive toward Wadi a-Tuffah Street, advanced a few meters, and then his car stopped.
The barrage of gunfire lasted about 32 seconds. Then, the soldiers removed Rajabi’s body from the car, loaded it and Abu Dawood’s body onto a military vehicle and drove away. Abu Dawood’s body was later handed over to his family, whereas Rajabi’s body is being held by the military, along with the car he was driving. After the incident, soldiers raided businesses near the scene, broke doors and confiscated all the security camera recording devices in the area. The footage presented here was saved thanks to one of the business owners, who managed to save a copy before the equipment was confiscated.
After the incident, the military posted the following statement on its X account: “A short while ago, two terrorists sped in their car toward Paratroopers Brigade troops on an operational mission at the Shoter checkpoint, in the Judea Brigade. The troops opened fire at the terrorists and killed them.”
However, as is often the case when the military claims it “killed terrorists,” this was an unjustified killing of ordinary civilians, who fell victim to the military’s reckless open-fire policy. Given the systemic, institutional failure to prosecute those responsible for killing Palestinians, the deaths of Ahmad Rajabi and Ziad Abu Dawood will, no doubt, also be brushed aside, and those responsible will not be held to account for their actions.
B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari collected testimonies from eyewitnesses who were at the scene on 9 December 2025.
An eyewitness said in a testimony he gave:
On Saturday, 6 December 2025, at around 8:00 P.M., there were occupation soldiers around. They came from the western side of Be’er Sheva Street, mainly from the back entrance of the “Hebron Center” complex, walked around the street, stopped several vehicles, inspected them, and kept the keys.
The soldiers continued moving until they reached the area that connects Be’er Sheva Street, Wadi a-Tuffah Street and Old a-Shalala Street, where there’s a large traffic island that leads to the main road that goes to Checkpoint 56 and to the closed-off a-Shuhada Street. In this area, about eight soldiers started searching shops. I was opposite them and watched what was happening.
At the same time, the soldiers stopped two cars, about 10 meters away from me, and took both drivers’ car keys. The soldiers’ behavior was very aggressive.
At around 9:00 P.M., a white Toyota Corolla with yellow license plates turned up, apparently from Old Wadi a-Tuffah Street. The car turned right onto the street that leads to Be’er Sheva Street, which is the main exit route from the city center.
The soldiers shouted at the driver to stop, and the car stopped about five meters away from the shop I was in. The driver shifted into reverse and backed up a few meters, until the car stopped near where the soldiers were standing. A concrete barrier that the municipality had placed about a week earlier, in order to regulate traffic on Be’er Sheva Street, separated the car from the soldiers.
The soldiers aimed their guns at the driver and shouted at him in Hebrew. After a few seconds, one of the soldiers fired, apparently into the air, and then another soldier approached the driver, shouting. The driver backed up again, and then the soldiers fired a barrage at the car. I was afraid and stayed sitting inside the shop, while the soldiers quickly advanced toward the car.
Afterwards, the soldiers started searching shops on Be’er Sheva Street and confiscated all the recording devices of the security cameras installed in the shops and in the street. I managed to go home only around midnight, after the soldiers let people pass along the street.
Another eyewitness who was at the scene said in a testimony he gave:
On Saturday, 6 December 2025, at around 8:00 P.M., I was sitting on concrete steps, browsing news sites on my phone. I saw several soldiers about 10 meters away from me, in an area near the intersection that leads to Be’er Sheva Street and Wadi a-Tuffah Street, close to the Zahada shops.
Two other soldiers were standing on Be’er Sheva Street, about 20 meters west of where I was sitting. The soldiers stopped two cars, one in the right lane and one in the left, took the keys from the drivers and left them waiting in their cars. Soldiers come to this area almost every week, especially since the war in Gaza. The street is also frequently closed because settlers pass through on their way to what they call “Otniel Tomb,” which is on Be’er Sheva Street, about 300 meters west of where I was sitting.
At around 9:00 P.M., while I was still sitting on the steps, a white car with yellow license plates passed by. It came from Old Wadi a-Tuffah Street and turned right toward Be’er Sheva Street, in the lane that leads out of the city. At that moment, I heard the soldiers shouting at the driver to stop. He slowed down but did not come to a complete stop, and then backed up toward the soldiers. Between the car and the soldiers, there were concrete barriers, about 80 centimeters high, that the municipality had placed about a week earlier to separate the lanes.
A few seconds later, I heard gunfire, and then more frequent gunfire, accompanied by the soldiers’ shouting. The car continued moving backwards toward the center of the road that connects Be’er Sheva Street and Wadi a-Tuffah Street, about 15 meters from the place where it had first stopped, and then it moved forward a few meters.
There were several sanitation workers in the area, who started shouting and backing away from the area, and it seemed that one of them was hurt. He fell on one of the concrete divider blocks that separate the two traffic lanes, in the area at the start of Old Wadi a-Tuffah Street, which leads to the Bab a-Zawiya area.
Several armed soldiers advanced toward the car, and because of the tension and panic in the area, I feared for my safety and left.