PALESTINIAN medical records show paraplegic Gaza resident Ibrahim Abu Thraya was killed by a bullet to the head, despite Israeli claims that the cause of his death was “impossible to determine.”

The 29-year-old was killed on December 15 during a protest on the Gaza border against US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

Israeli troops fired on the protesters, who were burning tyres and throwing stones. Their internal investigation, concluded within one day, states that they only targeted the “main instigators” of an “extremely violent” demonstration, that the disabled man was not shot at and that they could not say how he might have died.

It also found “no moral or professional failures” by soldiers during the clash.

Protester Ahmed Yaghi says he saw an Israeli soldier take aim and then heard a gunshot. “I ran closer and saw Ibrahim bleeding from his forehead. He was on the wheelchair.

“Some youths pushed him on the chair away and then carried him to the ambulance.”

The medical records obtained by Associated Press have now been passed to Israeli authorities, who claim to have repeatedly requested them from Gaza.

The documents, from the Shifa hospital, say that he was struck by a bullet above the left eye and died of bleeding from the brain. The Israeli army says the report “will be studied and examined during the following days,” while adding sceptically that its source was “the media.”

Mr Abu Thraya had been confined to a wheelchair since falling victim to a 2008 Israeli air raid on the Bureij refugee camp during Operation Cast Lead, an Israeli assault on Gaza that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians. He lost both legs and an eye in the strike, which took place as he sought to rescue wounded victims of a previous strike.

A frequent presence at demonstrations against Israel’s siege of Gaza and illegal occupation of the West Bank since, his image has now become widespread as a symbol of resistance.