May 21, 2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A video distributed by an Israeli human rights organization shows Jewish settlers firing at a group of rock-throwing Palestinians as Israeli soldiers look on.

Settlers from the West Bank village of Yitzhar clashed May 19 with residents of the Palestinian village Asira al-Qibliya. A Palestinian man, 24 was injured in the head by the gunfire.

The video released Sunday by B’tselem shows both Palestinians and settlers hurling rocks at each other, as smoke rises from fires started in the underbrush.

Both sides claim that the other began the rock throwing and set the fires.

At least three Israeli soldiers stood with the settlers and did not intervene as they fired on rock-throwing Palestinians.

The video shows a group of Palestinian men picking up and carrying the injured Palestinian man and running with him toward an ambulance.

B’tselem has called on the Judea and Samaria Police to arrest the settlers who fired on the Palestinians and has asked the Military Police Investigative Unit to open an investigation into the soldiers that did not intervene to protect the Palestinians.

A Yitzhar spokesman told Israeli media that the men carrying rifles were part of the settlement’s security service.
 

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