BICOM

The death of a Palestinian demonstrator in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh was an “exceptional” incident, according to Israel Defense Forces officials quoted in Haaretz today, and is currently subject to separate investigations by Central Command of the IDF and the Military Police. Mustafa Tamimi, 28, was throwing stones at an IDF jeep on Friday when he was hit in the head by a tear gas grenade fired at close range by a soldier inside the vehicle.

The Military Police investigation is being carried out in compliance with a policy introduced during the past year under which the Military Police look into all civilian deaths in the West Bank. According to IDF Central Command sources quoted in Haaretz, the soldier who fired the grenade claimed at the operational investigation that he “didn’t see” Tamimi because his visual field was obscured by the gas mask he was wearing. The IDF source added that the soldier said he did not notice when Tamimi, who was running after the jeep, entered his line of fire.

Tamimi was taking part in a regular weekly protest by villagers against the expansion of the nearby settlement of Halamish when he was hit. He was transported by the army to Petah Tikva’s Beilinson Hospital, Rabin Medical Centre, where he died from his injuries the following morning.