Palestinian shot by troops near Hebron

A Palestinian youth was seriously injured in the West Bank when a Border Policeman shot him in the waist on Monday.

The incident took place after the youth was spotted moving quickly toward a guard post near the West Bank settlement of Telem, located west of Hebron, around noon.

A Border Policewoman who was guarding the guard post saw the youth and immediately began gesturing and shouting at him to stop, as per the IDF’s standard procedure, a Border Police spokesman told The Times of Israel.

When he didn’t stop, she shot twice in the air, causing him to flee, the spokesman said.

A Border Policeman, who was also stationed at the guard post, heard the shots and began chasing the suspect and calling on him to stop.

When the suspect didn’t respond, the soldier shot one bullet in the air. At this point, the spokesman said, the suspect turned around and began running towards the soldier, while shouting in Arabic.

[mappress mapid=”4626″]

When the youth was a short distance away from the soldier, the soldier began to feel threatened and fired one bullet at the suspect.

The bullet hit the youth’s waist, seriously injuring him. He was immediately arrested and treated by an Israeli paramedic at the scene. He was then evacuated, fully conscious, to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.

Security forces were investigating the incident to determine whether or not the youth was armed.

Last month, Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem revealed in its annual report that 27 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in the West Bank in 2013, more than triple the number killed in the previous year.

The study found that, for the first time in 10 years, more Palestinians were killed in the West Bank than in the Gaza Strip.

The group reported 21 fatal incidents in the West Bank during 2013, versus seven altercations in Gaza that left nine Palestinians dead.