A new video has surfaced showing Israeli occupation forces shooting Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank, with one soldier cheering after a successful ‘hit’.
The video was published Tuesday by Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem and filmed by one of its volunteers.
According to B’Tselem, the incident took place on the afternoon of 13 April, when around thirty residents of the Palestinian village of Madama south of Nablus “tried to remove a roadblock the Israeli military had placed at the eastern entrance to the village” that morning.
Some eleven Israeli soldiers then “arrived on the scene”, and “in the clashes that ensued”, B’Tselem continued, “residents threw stones at the soldiers from a distance of 50-80 meters, and the soldiers fired stun grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets at the villagers”.
Seven Palestinian residents “sustained injuries from the rubber-coated metal bullets the soldiers fired”, including two who had to be “taken to a hospital in Nablus for medical treatment”.
In the video, three Israeli soldiers can be seen calmly discussing the best moment to open fire on the unarmed protesters, with one directing his colleague to allow the residents to come closer.
“We need one good hit and that’s it”, the soldier says. “That’ll teach them not to throw stones”.
After shooting a protester, a soldier stands, cheering, and says: “The son of a b—-!”.
In a press release, B’Tselem stated: “Joyfully cheering about shooting a person trying to clear the access road to his home and calmly discussing other ways to hit him and the other people with him are part of the discordant soundtrack accompanying 51 years of occupation”.
