The IDF on Tuesday night admitted it was likely that live fire had been used in
response to a stone-throwing incident in the Palestinian village of Nabi Salih
last Friday.
It said it had opened an investigation into the
incident.
But it added that, based on an initial investigation, it
appeared that live fire had been used.
Security sources said that a
junior officer had been suspended from his post for failing to report the
incident.
A video, which showed the officer firing his gun, was broadly
publicized Tuesday by pro-Palestinian group the Popular Struggle Coordination
Committee.
The two-minute video shows two Palestinian men, with scarves
covering their faces, standing on a paved road throwing stones at armed IDF
soldiers on a rocky ridge above them.
A soldier responds by both firing
his gun and throwing a return volley of stones at the young men. Some five other
soldiers appear near him, spreading on the hill above the road near the
village.
The popular committee said that from their perch on the hill the
officers had a strategic advantage over the stone throwers, and that their lives
were not in danger.
The committee added that there was no reason for the
soldiers to use live fire in this situation.
For over three years,
Palestinians have held weekly protests in Nabi Salih to protest Israel’s
continued military presence in the West Bank. The protests often turn into
violent clashes between IDF soldiers and Palestinians.