Palestinians blocked an Israeli medic from assisting PA official Ziad Abu Ein after he furiously confronted Israeli officers. Photo: Twitter

A British television news reporter has revealed that Palestinian demonstrators near the West Bank village of Turmusaya prevented an Israeli medic from providing aid to a Palestinian Authority official who collapsed after he shoved and verbally abused Israeli officers on the scene.

In a live report for the UK’s Sky News broadcaster, Middle East correspondent Tom Rayner reported that Ziad Abu Ein, a convicted terrorist who was appointed by the PA to organize campaigns against Jewish settlements in the West Bank, was lying on the ground “unconscious” after the clash – although separate footage shot by Kremlin broadcaster RT displayed Abu Ein conscious and sitting up after his altercation with the IDF officers.

“When he’s on the floor, an Israeli medic does come up to him, she tries to clear an area around him, but Palestinians pick him up and take him straight to a vehicle,” Rayner said, in footage viewed by The Algemeiner. The medic was “not able to deliver any first aid,” Rayner continued, and Abu Ein was “declared dead when he got to a hospital in Ramallah.”

As The Algemeiner reported today, Rayner had earlier said on Twitter that “When Abu Ein is unconscious on ground, Israel medic attempts to assist, asks crowd to make space, Palestinians rush him to a vehicle instead.” Rayner also reported that Abu Ein repeatedly asked the Israeli officer he clashed with for his name, calling him a “dog.”

As a result of Abu Ein’s death, the PA announced that it was suspending security cooperation with Israel. PA President Mahmoud Abbas lauded Abu Ein as a “martyr,” while PA official Hanan Ashrawi accused Israel of having carried out an “extrajudicial killing.”

Another reporter on the scene, Roi Sharon of Israel’s Channel 1o broadcaster, described the demonstration as “low key.” Abu Ein, he said, collapsed some five minutes after his confrontation with the Israeli Border Police, and was pronounced dead an hour later. Sharon also said that Palestinian claims that Abu Ein had been choked and attacked with a rifle butt were false.

Abu Ein’s death marks the second time in less than a month that the PA has accused Israel of murdering a Palestinian without establishing the facts. In November, the PA accused “six Jewish men” of having lynched a Palestinian bus driver in eastern Jerusalem. An autopsy ruled out “foul play” as the cause of the death, concluding that the driver likely committed suicide.