Border cops filmed throwing stun grenade at Palestinian couple with baby

The Yesh Din rights group released footage of Border Police throwing a stun grenade at a Palestinian couple carrying a baby on Friday.

Quoting residents of the northern West Bank village of Burin, Yesh Din said the Border Policemen threw tear gas and stun grenades at a group of young Palestinians who had gathered on the outskirts of the village after seeing two Israelis approaching from the nearby Givat Ronen outpost.

The group said tear gas entered a home in the village, leading a number of the house’s inhabitants to require medical treatment for smoke inhalation, and that Border Police continued to throw tear gas and stun grenades as those hurt were taken to an ambulance.

In the video, the policemen can be seen walking down a road towards the ambulance, as the couple carrying the baby begins to run away. One of the officers throws a stun grenade towards the couple, and it explodes within feet of them.

Following the release of the video, police said the footage “presents a partial and edited picture.”

According to police, the incident occurred following a riot in the village, during which dozens of Palestinians threw rocks towards the officers and the house. During the clashes, an ambulance from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society requested permission to evacuate the wounded, and was granted access by the commanding Israeli officer, police said.

At this point, the policemen saw two people running from the area, prompting one of the officers to throw a stun grenade in their direction.

Police said that as the man had his back to the officers, they could not see the baby, and that the way the couple was running was “characteristic of the same rioters throwing rocks towards the officers” and “trying to flee the area in order to avoid arrest at any cost.

“If the officers had noticed the baby, needless to say they would’ve acted accordingly,” police said.

The incident came as some 600 Palestinians took part in riots at a number of locations in the West Bank, while another 400 rioted in Gaza along the border, the Ynet news site reported.

חייל צהל נפצע קל מאבנים בחברון, פונה לביה"ח הדסה עין כרם שבירושלים @OrHeller pic.twitter.com/sxPVBCy9cK

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During the clashes, an IDF soldier was lightly injured after being struck by a rock in Hebron. He was taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital for treatment.

The release of the Yesh Din video came a day after the army said it was investigating a incident filmed in Hebron last month in which IDF soldiers pulled a Palestinian family out of their car in order to use the vehicle as cover from stone-throwers during a riot in the West Bank city.