The Israeli army on Tuesday said a soldier who shot a Palestinian suspect near the Gaza border in a recently circulated video behaved appropriately, but criticized the soldier who filmed and cheered the incident for violating military values.

The army said the cameraman, who was not part of the unit serving on the border and was not stationed at the same position, would face a disciplinary hearing. The initial result of the investigation into the video has been handed over to the Military Advocate General Corps, which will consider criminal charges.

According to the army’s initial investigation, the video was filmed on December 22 during a violent demonstration along the Gaza border, near the Israeli community of Kibbutz Kissufim.

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The army said the Palestinian who was shot was one of the people “suspected of organizing and leading” the violence along the border, which included the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails.

The military maintained that the sharpshooter behaved appropriately, firing one bullet as the suspect approached the fence after ignoring warnings and calls to halt. The army also refuted a claim heard in the video that the suspect was shot in the head, saying he was wounded in the leg.

The video came to light on Monday, leading Israel’s national television broadcast and prompting a wave of condemnations across the political spectrum, as well as some justification and support for the soldiers featured in it.

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman also expressed his support for the sniper, while criticizing the soldier who filmed the event.

“The sniper deserves an honor and the cameraman a demerit,” he said at an event in northern Israel.

In the footage, the cameraman can be heard cheering as the Palestinian is shot, something the army said “does not fit with the spirit and degree of restraint expected of IDF soldiers.”

The army reportedly debriefed one of the soldiers who featured in the clip.

Though he criticized the video, Liberman also appeared to defend the cheering heard in it, saying it was inappropriate but somewhat understandable for soldiers in stressful situations.

“The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but when you are on the front lines and tense sometimes you let out some tension, so you can understand this,” he added, calling IDF troops “the best of the Israeli people.”

Earlier Tuesday, Education Minister Naftali Bennett defended the soldiers in the video and pushed back at their critics.

“Anyone who was ever in the field knows that to sit in Tel Aviv or in studios and judge the expressions of IDF soldiers guarding the borders isn’t serious,” Bennett, who heads the right-wing Jewish Home party, told Army Radio Tuesday morning.

“We are starting to judge soldiers based on the quality of their speech and whether it sounds nice or not?” he said. “Really?”

Expressing his support for the soldiers, Bennett blasted critics for judging their “inelegant” speech rather than their actions, and noted IDF troops’ role in defending Israel’s borders.

He later tweeted, “IDF soldiers protect our lives. We protect them. [We] don’t abandon soldiers.”

Officials from across the Israeli political spectrum on Monday condemned the video. While most also expressed confidence that the army would investigate the incident, human rights groups claimed dozens of similar shootings have recently taken place. “The IDF is a moral army, but immoral actions may be committed within it,” said MK Nachman Shai of the left-wing Zionist Union party. “This incident and all incidents require an investigation. The battle isn’t just between us and Hamas; it is also for ourselves, for our values and for the identity of Israel society.”

In the video, which was apparently filmed through a scope or binoculars, soldiers can be heard discussing the shot ahead of time, as the sniper trains his rifle on the suspect, who is seen standing next to another Palestinian crouching in front of a roll of barbed wire, several meters away from the security fence.

The Palestinian does not appear to be armed and is not seen throwing rocks or firebombs at the security fence or the Israeli troops on the other side.

“The moment he stops, you drop him. Do you have a bullet in the chamber? Are you [trained] on him?” the commander is heard asking in the footage.

The sharpshooter can then be heard saying he cannot fire because his shot is blocked by the rolls of barbed wire along the security fence.

At one point, the sniper says he is ready to fire, but his commander tells him to wait. “There’s a little kid,” the commander says.

One soldier, apparently the one filming the incident, calls over a friend a moment before the gunshot is heard and the Palestinian is seen crumpling to the ground.

“Whoa! What a video! YES! Son of a bitch. What a video! Look they’re running to evacuate him,” the photographer enthuses.

“Of course I filmed it,” he adds, responding to a question.

Another soldier is then heard saying, “Whoa, [he] hit him in the head.”

As a group of Palestinians can be seen carrying the injured man away, the photographer adds, “What a legendary video.”

Reporting on the video clip, which was the lead item on Israel’s national news broadcasts on Monday evening, TV correspondents said it was not clear whether the Palestinian suspect had been injured or killed.

‘Armchair critics’

Echoing Bennett, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) expressed support on Tuesday for Israeli troops and dismissed the uproar over the video.

“I’m unable to comprehend what isn’t okay in the video. You can’t take a human reaction — no matter how over-the-top — from a battlefield and judge it from the armchairs in Tel Aviv,” he told Israel Radio.

While saying such a video “shouldn’t exist,” Science Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) urged against rushing to judgment over the incident.

“The Palestinian who approached the border didn’t come to ask for peace,” he told Israel Radio.

The focus on the video came just a day after the IDF General Staff announced that it was launching an investigation into the military’s response to a series of violent protests along the Gaza border in recent days, which have so far resulted in the deaths of some 30 Palestinians.

Border incidents in the past two weeks have included two massive demonstrations in which tens of thousands of Palestinians took part.

The protests were part of a planned six-week “March of Return” that is due to end in mid-May with both “Nakba Day,” marking the displacement of Arabs after Israel’s creation, and the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a plan that has infuriated Palestinian leaders.

Palestinian activists have insisted the protests were civilian-led and nonviolent, while Israel has said they were often used as cover for attempts at violence against Israeli troops and breaches of the border. The IDF says the marches are a new tactic by Hamas, which rules Gaza, to conduct terror operations in the confusion of the demonstrations.

The army said that it had spotted multiple attempts by terrorists to plant explosive devices along the Gaza border, a shooting attack on IDF troops by two well-armed Palestinian men dispatched by Hamas, as well as an attempted infiltration by a gunman wearing a suicide bomb vest. Hamas, a terror group that seeks to destroy Israel, has acknowledged several of its operatives were among the Palestinian dead. Hamas leaders have said the ultimate goal of the protests is to erase the border and liberate Palestine.</s>TIMES OF ISRAEL – Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman backs the IDF sniper seen in a video allegedly shooting a Gazan at the Israel-Gaza border, but slams the soldier who filmed the shooting.

“The sniper deserves a commendation, the photographer a court martial,” Liberman quips at an event he is attending in the Golan Heights town of Katzrin.

Speaking of the soldiers heard on the video shouting “yes!” when the Palestinian is hit, Liberman says: “The truth must be clear. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but when you’re at the front and facing tense situations, sometimes you let out those tensions.”</s>With international criticism of Israel’s response to the Gaza protests growing, video has emerged appearing to show an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) sniper shooting a Palestinian man standing near the border fence.

After the Palestinian man falls to the ground, soldiers are heard cheering in the background. One yells “What a legendary film!”

The video, which circulated on social media, appears to be through a scope, showing the Gaza border fence and a field behind it.

The sniper is heard discussing the shot with another soldier nearby.

IDF soldiers cheer as you hear the gunshot and see the Palestinian man fall.

A group of Palestinians can be seen in the video running to the fallen man’s side and removing him from the field.

In a response to the video issued Tuesday afternoon, the IDF said in a statement that the video was filmed back on December 22 during what they termed “a violent riot.”

At the time, protests were held in Gaza and the West Bank following US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

“The video depicts a short part of the response to a violent riot, which included rock hurling and attempts to sabotage the security fence, and lasted about two hours. During the riot, means were taken in order to disperse it, including verbal warnings and calls to halt, using riot dispersal means and firing warning shots into the air,” the IDF statement said. “After none of these were successful, a single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organizing and leading this incident, while he was a few meters from the fence. He was hit in the leg and injured. The video was not filmed from the position of the shooting, and was filmed by a soldier who was not part of the unit of the soldiers who fired.”

The IDF also said “relevant commanders” would conduct a full operation inquiry, which will then be submitted to the Military Advocate General’s Office, a legal department that supervises and the rule of law in the military.

The military noted the cheering heard in the video “[does] not suit the degree of restraint expected of IDF soldiers and will be dealt by commanders accordingly.”

The one minute, 20 second video led the news Monday evening on Israeli television channels and featured highly in local newspapers, reigniting a debate about the Israeli army’s principles and its soldiers’ actions.

It was not immediately clear who put out the video. The identity of the Palestinian – and his condition after the shot – are also unknown.

“The sniper deserves a medal, and the photographer deserves a demotion,” said Israeli Defence Minister Israeli Avigdor Liberman, speaking Tuesday afternoon. “The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but there can be no doubt when you are at the front and under a lot of tension and there is a need to unwind your nerves, there are emotions and one can understand it.”

But, condemnation of the video came swiftly and forcefully.

Ahmad Tibi, a politician from the Joint Arab List party in Israel’s Knesset, said on Facebook: “The crime and the evidence. The hunting of humans, and the gratification the sniper derives from the ruthless murder of an unarmed Palestinian civilian in Gaza. A video recorded by a soldier of the Israeli occupation forces who stood next to the sniper. Difficult to watch.”

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said: “This documented case of extrajudicial killing demands the world to end Israel’s impunity and highlights a further urgency for the International Criminal Court to open an immediate investigation into the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupying power.”

The video appears to contradict the IDF’s claim that it first fires warning shots into the air then aims at protesters’ legs. When the Palestinian man is shot, he is standing still in the field, apparently posing no threat to Israeli soldiers.

As widespread protests along the Gaza border entered a second week last Friday, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus denied Israel is using excessive force against protesters in Gaza.

“We are using water, tear gas, and other means to try to create a distance between rioters and our security fence. We aim for the lower part of the body, to the feet to make sure those rioters are not able to sabotage the fence or pose a significant threat to our facilities,” he told CNN last week. “We used tear gas and other means to create a distance between those rioters and our sensitive security infrastructure and if those things don’t work, if people don’t listen to our warnings and are hell bent on coming to the fence and sabotaging and trying to break through, we use very specific sharp shooters, snipers at specific persons who are trying to sabotage the fence. We aim for the lower part of the body, to the feet to make sure those rioters are not able to pose a significant threat to our facilities.”

In all, 31 Palestinians have been killed in violence in Gaza since an initial protest was held at the border fence on March 30, according to a CNN count based on the Palestinian Health Ministry figures.

Human rights organizations slammed the Israeli military, claiming the video shows the rule and not the exception.

“Incidents such as the one in the video published today occurred hundreds of times over the past few weeks in the Gaza strip, causing death and injuries – with the full support of policymakers and top military officials,” said Amit Gilutz, a spokesman for B’Tselem, a human rights organization that is regularly critical of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and its policies towards Palestinians. “The professed shock they now express, as well as their promise to investigate, are just lip service: as before, their ‘thorough investigation’ will once again whitewash the truth.”

Israel’s Minister of Education and leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, defended the soldier’s actions.

“Seriously do you know what they were doing three minutes before, two minutes before? Maybe they lost a friend a day before. Do you know what the context of the situation was?” he said on Israel Army Radio Tuesday morning. ” I stand behind IDF soldiers. They are guarding us, and we should get back to that a basic understanding which somehow got lost.”</s>Jerusalem (CNN) With international criticism of Israel's response to the Gaza protests growing, video emerged on Monday appearing to show an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) sniper shooting a Palestinian man standing near the border fence.

After the Palestinian man falls to the ground, soldiers are heard cheering in the background. One yells, "What a legendary film!"

The video, which circulated on social media, appears to be through a scope, showing the Gaza border fence and a field behind it.

The sniper is heard discussing the shot with another soldier nearby.

"When he stops, you take him down," the soldier says. "Are you on him?"

"I can't fire because of the barbed wire," the sniper responds a short time later.

"Take out the one in the pink," the other soldier says after a few moments.

IDF soldiers cheer as you hear the gunshot and see the Palestinian man fall.

"Son of a bitch!" one soldier, who appears to have recorded the video, yells. "What a legendary film! I haven't seen this kind of thing for a long time."

A group of Palestinians can be seen in the video running to the fallen man's side and removing him from the field.

In a response to the video issued Tuesday afternoon, the IDF said in a statement that the video was filmed on Friday, December 22, 2017 during what they termed "a violent riot."

At the time, protests were held in Gaza and the West Bank following US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

"The video depicts a short part of the response to a violent riot, which included rock hurling and attempts to sabotage the security fence, and lasted about two hours. During the riot, means were taken in order to disperse it, including verbal warnings and calls to halt, using riot dispersal means and firing warning shots into the air," the IDF statement said.

"After none of these were successful, a single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organizing and leading this incident, while he was a few meters from the fence. He was hit in the leg and injured. The video was not filmed from the position of the shooting, and was filmed by a soldier who was not part of the unit of the soldiers who fired."

The IDF also said "relevant commanders" would conduct a full operation inquiry, which will then be submitted to the Military Advocate General's Office, a legal department that supervises and the rule of law in the military.

The military noted that the cheering heard in the video "[does] not suit the degree of restraint expected of IDF soldiers and will be dealt by commanders accordingly."

The one minute, 20 second video led the news Monday evening on Israeli television channels and featured highly in local newspapers, reigniting a debate about the Israeli army's principles and its soldiers' actions.

It was not immediately clear who put out the video. The identity of the Palestinian -- and his condition after the shot -- are also unknown.

"The sniper deserves a medal, and the photographer deserves a demotion," said Israeli Defence Minister Israeli Avigdor Liberman, speaking Tuesday afternoon.

"The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but there can be no doubt when you are at the front and under a lot of tension and there is a need to unwind your nerves, there are emotions and one can understand it."

But condemnation of the video came swiftly and forcefully.

Ahmad Tibi, a politician from the Joint Arab List party in Israel's Knesset, said on Facebook: "The crime and the evidence. The hunting of humans, and the gratification the sniper derives from the ruthless murder of an unarmed Palestinian civilian in Gaza. A video recorded by a soldier of the Israeli occupation forces who stood next to the sniper. Difficult to watch."

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said: "This documented case of extrajudicial killing demands the world to end Israel's impunity and highlights a further urgency for the International Criminal Court to open an immediate investigation into the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupying power."

The video appears to contradict the IDF's claim that it first fires warning shots into the air, then aims at protestors' legs. When the Palestinian man is shot, he is standing still in the field, apparently posing no threat to Israeli soldiers.

As widespread protests along the Gaza border entered a second week last Friday, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus denied Israel is using excessive force against protesters in Gaza.

He told CNN last week: "We are using water, tear gas, and other means to try to create a distance between rioters and our security fence. We use lethal means very sparingly and only against specific people who pose a real threat toward our security infrastructure.

"We used tear gas and other means to create a distance between those rioters and our sensitive security infrastructure and if those things don't work, if people don't listen to our warnings and are hell bent on coming to the fence and sabotaging and trying to break through, we use very specific sharp shooters, snipers at specific persons who are trying to sabotage the fence. We aim for the lower part of the body. To the feet to make sure those rioters are not able to sabotage the fence or pose."

In all, 31 Palestinians have been killed in violence in Gaza since an initial protest was held at the border fence on March 30, according to a CNN count based on the Palestinian Health Ministry figures.

Human rights organizations slammed the Israeli military, claiming the video shows the rule and not the exception.

"Incidents such as the one in the video published today occurred hundreds of times over the past few weeks in the Gaza strip, causing death and injuries - with the full support of policymakers and top military officials," said Amit Gilutz, a spokesman for B'Tselem, a human rights organization that is regularly critical of Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and its policies towards Palestinians.

"The professed shock they now express, as well as their promise to investigate, are just lip service: as before, their 'thorough investigation' will once again whitewash the truth," he said.

Israel's Minister of Education and leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, defended the soldier's actions.

"Seriously do you know what they were doing three minutes before, two minutes before?" he said on Israel Army Radio Tuesday morning.

"Maybe they lost a friend a day before. Do you know what the context of the situation was?"

"I stand behind IDF soldiers. They are guarding us, and we should get back to that a basic understanding which somehow got lost."</s>JERUSALEM (JTA) — A preliminary investigation by the Israeli military found that an army sniper who in December shot a Palestinian man approaching the Gaza border fence acted appropriately.

In the preliminary findings, which were announced Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said that soldiers heard in a video of the incident cheering the man’s shooting acted inappropriately and will face a disciplinary hearing. Also, the IDF said the soldier who filmed the shooting was not part of the sniper unit serving on the border and would face a disciplinary hearing.

The IDF said the sniper followed protocol, firing one bullet after the Palestinian man ignored warnings and orders to stop. The military also noted that the man was shot in the leg and not the head.

“As for the unapproved filming of an operational incident, distribution of the filmed material and the expressions heard in it, it should be noted that this is not the spirit and the level of restraint expected from IDF soldiers and it will be handled appropriately on a disciplinary level,” read a report on the preliminary investigation, Haaretz reported.

The preliminary results have been turned over over to the Military Advocate General Corps, which will consider criminal charges.

In the video that surfaced over the weekend, which appears to be filmed though a set of binoculars, the soldiers can be heard discussing the shot as the sniper takes aim. The Palestinian man, who was several yards from the border fence and in the video does not appear to be armed, was shot in the head.

Prior to the shot, the sniper’s commander says: “The moment he stops, you drop him. Do you have a bullet in the chamber? Are you [trained] on him?” The shooter replies that there is barbed wire from the security fence blocking his shot. He is then prevented from taking the shot by the presence of a child in the area.

After the man is shot, the person shooting the video is heard saying: “Whoa! What a video! YES! Son of a bitch. What a video! Look they’re running to evacuate him,” he later adds, “What a legendary video.”

Israel’s defense minister, Avigdor Liberman, said Tuesday during an appearance in northern Israel hours before the release of the preliminary results, “The sniper deserves a commendation, the photographer a court martial.”

Of the cheering soldiers, he added: “The truth must be clear. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but when you’re at the front and facing tense situations, sometimes you let out those tensions.”</s>Jerusalem (CNN) With international criticism of Israel's response to the Gaza protests growing, video emerged on Monday appearing to show an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) sniper shooting a Palestinian man standing near the border fence.

After the Palestinian man falls to the ground, soldiers are heard cheering in the background. One yells, "What a legendary film!"

The video, which circulated on social media, appears to be through a scope, showing the Gaza border fence and a field behind it.

The sniper is heard discussing the shot with another soldier nearby.

"When he stops, you take him down," the soldier says. "Are you on him?"

"I can't fire because of the barbed wire," the sniper responds a short time later.

"Take out the one in the pink," the other soldier says after a few moments.

IDF soldiers cheer as you hear the gunshot and see the Palestinian man fall.

"Son of a bitch!" one soldier, who appears to have recorded the video, yells. "What a legendary film! I haven't seen this kind of thing for a long time."

A group of Palestinians can be seen in the video running to the fallen man's side and removing him from the field.

In a response to the video issued Tuesday afternoon, the IDF said in a statement that the video was filmed on Friday, December 22, 2017 during what they termed "a violent riot."

At the time, protests were held in Gaza and the West Bank following US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

"The video depicts a short part of the response to a violent riot, which included rock hurling and attempts to sabotage the security fence, and lasted about two hours. During the riot, means were taken in order to disperse it, including verbal warnings and calls to halt, using riot dispersal means and firing warning shots into the air," the IDF statement said.

"After none of these were successful, a single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organizing and leading this incident, while he was a few meters from the fence. He was hit in the leg and injured. The video was not filmed from the position of the shooting, and was filmed by a soldier who was not part of the unit of the soldiers who fired."

The IDF also said "relevant commanders" would conduct a full operation inquiry, which will then be submitted to the Military Advocate General's Office, a legal department that supervises and the rule of law in the military.

The military noted that the cheering heard in the video "[does] not suit the degree of restraint expected of IDF soldiers and will be dealt by commanders accordingly."

The one minute, 20 second video led the news Monday evening on Israeli television channels and featured highly in local newspapers, reigniting a debate about the Israeli army's principles and its soldiers' actions.

It was not immediately clear who put out the video. The identity of the Palestinian -- and his condition after the shot -- are also unknown.

"The sniper deserves a medal, and the photographer deserves a demotion," said Israeli Defence Minister Israeli Avigdor Liberman, speaking Tuesday afternoon.

"The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but there can be no doubt when you are at the front and under a lot of tension and there is a need to unwind your nerves, there are emotions and one can understand it."

But condemnation of the video came swiftly and forcefully.

Ahmad Tibi, a politician from the Joint Arab List party in Israel's Knesset, said on Facebook: "The crime and the evidence. The hunting of humans, and the gratification the sniper derives from the ruthless murder of an unarmed Palestinian civilian in Gaza. A video recorded by a soldier of the Israeli occupation forces who stood next to the sniper. Difficult to watch."

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said: "This documented case of extrajudicial killing demands the world to end Israel's impunity and highlights a further urgency for the International Criminal Court to open an immediate investigation into the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupying power."

The video appears to contradict the IDF's claim that it first fires warning shots into the air, then aims at protestors' legs. When the Palestinian man is shot, he is standing still in the field, apparently posing no threat to Israeli soldiers.

As widespread protests along the Gaza border entered a second week last Friday, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus denied Israel is using excessive force against protesters in Gaza.

He told CNN last week: "We are using water, tear gas, and other means to try to create a distance between rioters and our security fence. We use lethal means very sparingly and only against specific people who pose a real threat toward our security infrastructure.

"We used tear gas and other means to create a distance between those rioters and our sensitive security infrastructure and if those things don't work, if people don't listen to our warnings and are hell bent on coming to the fence and sabotaging and trying to break through, we use very specific sharp shooters, snipers at specific persons who are trying to sabotage the fence. We aim for the lower part of the body. To the feet to make sure those rioters are not able to sabotage the fence or pose."

In all, 31 Palestinians have been killed in violence in Gaza since an initial protest was held at the border fence on March 30, according to a CNN count based on the Palestinian Health Ministry figures.

Human rights organizations slammed the Israeli military, claiming the video shows the rule and not the exception.

"Incidents such as the one in the video published today occurred hundreds of times over the past few weeks in the Gaza strip, causing death and injuries - with the full support of policymakers and top military officials," said Amit Gilutz, a spokesman for B'Tselem, a human rights organization that is regularly critical of Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and its policies towards Palestinians.

"The professed shock they now express, as well as their promise to investigate, are just lip service: as before, their 'thorough investigation' will once again whitewash the truth," he said.

Israel's Minister of Education and leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, defended the soldier's actions.

"Seriously do you know what they were doing three minutes before, two minutes before?" he said on Israel Army Radio Tuesday morning.

"Maybe they lost a friend a day before. Do you know what the context of the situation was?"

"I stand behind IDF soldiers. They are guarding us, and we should get back to that a basic understanding which somehow got lost."
An Israeli Defence Forces investigation clears a sniper who fired a single bullet through the Gazan border fence, striking a Palestinian, but criticises a second soldier who filmed the incident and cheered. Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman says Israel has the world's most moral army and soldiers occasionally "let out some tension".