US activist claims he was shot in leg by Israeli forces during West Bank protest

A US citizen says he was shot in the leg by Israeli forces during a protest against settlement expansion in the West Bank.

The Israel Defense Forces says it is looking into the claim.

The Palestinian Red Crescent says in a statement that its crews treated “a 40-year-old foreign activist who was shot in the thigh with live ammunition during clashes with the occupation forces” in the West Bank town of Beita.

The activist, who asks to use a pseudonym for security concerns, says he joined the rally to help defend Palestinians.

“There was a demonstration and we were there to film, to make sure we have eyes on the (Israeli) occupation army,” he tells AFP from a hospital bed in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

“At one point we ran away… and they shot me in the leg.”

Israeli troops were “firing tear gas at us, live rounds,” he says. As the Israeli force approached the protesters, “we ran into the olive groves and when I was running away they shot at us and it went through my leg,” he adds.