Palestinian killed by Israeli jeep in West Bank

An Israeli border policeman drags a Palestinian during confrontations in Qafr Malik village near the West Bank city of Ramallah. -Reuters

West Bank - An Israeli army jeep struck and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, with the military and locals giving conflicting accounts of the circumstances.

A military spokeswoman said the jeep, which was in the village of Qafr Malik as part of an operation to arrest suspected militants, accidentally hit the Palestinian after he threw a petrol bomb at it.

“The driver was startled and swerved, hitting the man,” she said, adding that a military investigation would be launched.

Local resident Nail Abdul Latah El Hajj denied the Palestinian had attacked the jeep, saying the man was walking to work at a chicken farm when he was run down and then crushed as the vehicle crashed into a wall and overturned.

He said the man’s death sparked confrontations between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli troops. The military spokeswoman said the disturbances were already under way when the collision happened.

In a separate incident, the army said it was investigating soldiers who were filmed beating an unarmed Palestinian during a protest in a West Bank refugee camp on Friday.

The video posted on social media showed the Palestinian being hit with a rifle butt and wrestled to the ground, where he was punched further and a soldier’s knee was pressed against his head. He was then handcuffed and taken away.

“If necessary, disciplinary action will be taken against (the soldiers). Based on preliminary investigation, it appears that the conduct displayed in the incident is inconsistent with that expected of IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers,” the military said in a statement.

Israeli forces regularly mount raids in the West Bank in search of suspected militants, often touching off clashes with local residents. On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers shot dead a member of the Hamas group in the town of Jenin in one such operation.