Three soldiers have been court-martialed after unnecessarily throwing a smoke grenade at a group of young Palestinian men in the northern West Bank, an army spokesperson says.
The sergeant responsible for the unit is found by his battalion commander to have acted “contrary to what is expected of him,” an army spokesperson says.
He has been sentenced to prison, though it is not yet clear for how long, while the other two have been confined to their base by their battalion commander.
In a video, which was released on Palestinian social media on Tuesday, the soldiers can be seen driving up to the group of men and throwing a small object at them.
The Palestinians, seeing the device, panic and run away, knocking over chairs, before the device explodes in a flash of light and smoke.
Initially, the incident was incorrectly said to have taken place in Ramallah. In fact, it happened in Kafr Laqif, a village southwest of Nablus, the army says.
— Judah Ari Gross
Security camera footage that appears to show soldiers in a military jeep throwing a stun grenade at the Palestinian men sitting outside a store in Ramallah on August 15, 2016. (Screen capture: Ramallah News)
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