150 anti-security fence protesters enter closed military zone, pelt security forces with stones.
By JPOST.COM STAFFsecurity fence protest 248(photo credit: AP)
A Border Police officer and an IDF soldier were lightly wounded Thursday afternoon when they were hit by stones during an anti-security fence protest near the Palestinian village of Nil'in, west of Ramallah.
Some 150 Palestinian, left-wing Israeli and foreign activists demonstrated against the construction of the barrier, entering a closed military zone and pelting security forces with stones.
The forces responded with crowd dispersal tactics and the wounded officer was evacuated to a hospital in Jerusalem.
On Wednesday, Lt.-Col. Omri Burbarg, commander of Armored Battalion 71 and suspected of ordering one of his soldiers to shoot a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian demonstrator on the outskirts of Nil'in on July 7, underwent a polygraph test in which he was found to be telling the truth by denying the allegations against him.
On Sunday, the human rights group B'tselem released a videotape showing a soldier firing a rubber-coated bullet from close range at the feet of a bound, blindfolded Palestinian man, who was being escorted by Burbarg.
IDF Judge Advocate-General Brig.-Gen. Avichai Mandelblit ordered the Military Police to launch an immediate investigation into the incident. On Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the shooting contradicted basic IDF ethics and principles.
Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.
