He was part of a group of 16 foreigners that included nine other Sudanese, two women from the former Soviet Union and three Gazan Palestinians. They were traveling in two vehicles near Wadi Paran when they were stopped by a Border Police unit.

When one of the men in the group fled, the force carried out the usual procedure for arresting a suspect, according to a Border Police spokesman: They yelled at the man to stop, fired a warning shot into the air and fired at him twice when he refused to stop, shooting him in the abdomen. He died on the spot.

The other Sudanese, including one woman, were remanded to Ketziot Prison. The Gazans were handed over to the Shin Bet security services and the women from the CIS were transferred to the police for deportation.

Officials at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Moked ?-the Hotline for Migrant Workers say the killing reflects Israel's violent and humiliating treatment of hundreds of Sudanese who have fled from civil war and genocide and sought asylum in Israel.

"The state of Israel has a moral obligation to ensure that those seeking protection within its boundaries receive it, and do not die in the state they expected would protect them," PHR and the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University said in a joint letter to the Judge Advocate General, Brig. Gen. Avihai Mandelblit.