Gaza border rioter accidentally injures fellow protester with slingshot
Short clip, purportedly from recent demonstrations, shows Palestinian man aiming weapon at Israeli troops, mistakenly striking bystander in the head
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleStuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
A video clip, purportedly from recent clashes along the Gaza-Israel border, shows a Palestinian rioter attempting to use a slingshot against Israeli security forces, only to accidentally clobber another protester in the head.
The short footage was shared Friday by Hananya Naftali, who was recently hired as deputy social media adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the clip, a protester is seen swinging the slingshot, which appears to be fitted with a small rock, in circles to gain momentum for a shot. He releases the projectile in the wrong direction and hits another man in the head, causing him to buckle in pain.
Several other protesters cluster around the injured man who appears to be in some distress, before helping him to move away.
This happened today at the Israel-Gaza border during a "peaceful" protest.
What goes around comes around. #Hamas #GreatReturnMarch pic.twitter.com/0YJQtdXsRd
— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) April 27, 2018
“This happened today at the Israel-Gaza border during a ‘peaceful’ protest,” Naftali wrote.
On Friday, during the fifth round of weekly violent protests, four Palestinians were killed and over 300 hurt, the Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry said, as thousands of Gazans converged on the border with Israel.
After the deadly clashes Friday, the IDF said in a statement that “hundreds of rioters” tried to burn the fence and enter Israel. It said the crowd threw explosives, firebombs and rocks, and that troops opened fire “in accordance with the rules of engagement” and halted the crowd.
The number of protesters appeared to be down from previous weeks. The demonstrations, organized by the Hamas terror group and dubbed the “March of Return,” have progressively dwindled, with the first event on March 30 drawing around 30,000 people, and last Friday’s rally managing only around one-tenth of that figure.
The Israeli army says its troops only open fire at demonstrators who engage in violence, or who attempt to breach the barrier separating the territory from Israel.
In two separate incidents on Sunday, one of which included an attack on Israeli forces, troops opened fire on four Palestinians who tried to enter Israeli territory from the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, killing three of them, the army said.
Sunday night’s clashes brought to 47 the Gaza death toll since the start of the riots on March 30, according to statistics from the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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