At first glance, the confrontation on Friday along Israel's separation barrier seemed unremarkable.
About 20 protesters shook the chain-link fence, and some then took out pliers to cut it. After calling out warnings and firing shots into the air, Israeli troops shot at the legs of the protesters with live ammunition, the military acknowledged.
One man was hit in both legs and seriously wounded. The surprise was that the injured man, Gil Naamati, is a 22-year-old Israeli who had just completed three years of military service as a combat soldier.
PHOTO: AP
In addition, a woman was lightly wounded. She is a 26-year-old American, Anne Farina.
The soldiers apparently did not realize that Israelis were among the demonstrators. In a statement, the military said soldiers shot at the man "who led the rioters."
The episode happened Friday afternoon on the edge of a Palestinian village, Masha, in the West Bank. By Sunday, almost everyone in Israel, from the president, Moshe Katsav, on down had joined a national debate on why soldiers had used live ammunition to shoot the unarmed Israeli demonstrator.
"I am in favor of building the fence," Katsav told the Israeli radio. "Israeli citizens are allowed to protest against the fence. But the reaction to this cannot be live fire."
Palestinian officials said the episode supported their long-standing contention that Israeli troops are too quick to use lethal force.
"It shows how liberal the army is in using live ammunition against peaceful demonstrators," said Mustafa Barghouti, who leads a Palestinian group that has monitored the violence.
In many previous shootings involving Palestinians, the Israeli military has routinely said that soldiers followed strict rules of engagement on the use of live ammunition.
The military does not divulge the specific rules, but in most instances, soldiers are to use other means, such as tear gas or rubber bullets, unless they believe they are in danger, military officials say.
The protesters say they had no weapons and did not throw stones or otherwise endanger the soldiers, who they said were 20m to 40m away, on the far side of the fence.
"We didn't threaten soldiers," Naamati said in the only interview he gave from his hospital bed, to the army radio. "All we hurt was the fence. The fence does not threaten lives, we did not threaten anyone's life."
Naamati acknowledged he was among those shaking the fence and trying to cut through it. But he said, "I am familiar with the rules of engagement, and what I did was not even close to something that I think would warrant opening fire."
Video images on Israeli television showed soldiers standing next to a military vehicle. In a deliberate manner, one soldier goes down on his belly and aims his rifle at the protesters.
Shortly afterward, shots ring out, and one of the protesters shouts in Hebrew, "Don't shoot!"
Uri Naamati, the father, said he and his son support the barrier that Israel is building to separate them from Palestinians, believing it will greatly reduce Palestinian suicide bombings. But Gil Naamati opposed its route, which is running well inside the West Bank and disrupting the lives of many Palestinians, his father said.
The son went with an Israeli friend to take part in the protest, his father said.
Some Israeli news reports said Gil Naamati belonged to a group identified as "Anarchists Against the Wall," but his father denied this. "Gilly is a sensitive kid, and is not part of any extreme group," Uri Naamati said in a telephone interview from the hospital where his son was being treated.
Uri Naamati said that his son had been a willing soldier, but that he was particularly critical of the way the soldiers were operating at checkpoints.
"He always said, `Dad, we are doing terrible things to the people over there,'" Uri Naamati said.
Many liberal Israelis say that soldiers use lethal force too quickly and too often, resulting in many civilian casualties. But other Israelis say that soldiers and the police face daily attacks by armed Palestinians and should not always be second-guessed.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS