In this file picture, a Palestinian man's car is seen in the northern West Bank, where the Israeli military alleged the man attacked someone before being shot dead on February 5, 2021.

Ramallah, April 7 (RHC)-- Israeli soldiers have shot dead a Palestinian motorist who they said tried to ram them at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank – an account disputed by his wife who was with him in the car.

The Palestinian health ministry said the man, identified as 42-year-old Osama Mansour, was killed on Tuesday and his wife sustained bullet fragment wounds.

“They told us to stop the car and we stopped and turned it off,” the man’s wife, Sumaya Mansour, 35 years old, told Palestine TV.  “Then they looked at us and told us to go, we turned the car on and moved and all of them started shooting at us.”

Salem Eid, the mayor of Biddu village where the man lived, said the Palestinians may raise the incident at the International Criminal Court, whose prosecutor announced last month it would formally investigate war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

In a statement, the Israeli military claimed the vehicle accelerated towards a group of soldiers “in a way that endangered their lives” and they responded with gunfire “to thwart the threat.”

Asked about the woman’s account, an Israeli military spokesman said: “The attempted car-ramming attack carried out earlier this morning is being investigated by the commander of the Binyamin Regional Brigade.”

Eid challenged the military’s accusation that the driver was trying to carry out an attack, noting he was a father of five and had his wife with him in the vehicle.