Palestinian shot in leg with rubber bullet outside settlement

Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian man in the leg with a rubber bullet as he approached the fence surrounding the Jewish Beit El settlement in the West Bank on Sunday, the army said.

The forces who were guarding the area had spotted three men outside Beit El, north of Ramallah. In order to “deter the suspects” the soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets, striking one of the men, an army spokesperson said.

The suspects then fled the scene, the army said. The soldiers did not pursue them.

“With that, the incident was over,” the spokesperson said.

The nature of the incident — if it was criminal, a misunderstanding or a thwarted terror attack — was not immediately clear.

The condition of the Palestinian man was also unknown. The Red Crescent ambulance service told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency it was unaware of the incident.

On Saturday night, the IDF imposed a general closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, ahead of Sunday evening’s Simhat Torah holiday.

The checkpoints and crossings were shut down to Palestinian travel beginning at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday and are expected to re-open on Monday at 11:59 p.m., dependent upon a “situational assessment,” the army said in a statement.

During that time, Palestinians will not be able to exit the West Bank or Gaza. However, exceptions would be made for medical emergencies and other “humanitarian cases,” dependent upon the approval of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).