GAZA - A 28-year-old Palestinian said on Wednesday that he was the man whose shooting by an Israeli sniper was captured on a leaked video, and he denied the army's allegations that he had been organizing a violent demonstration at the Gaza border. A Palestinian who says he was shot by an Israeli sniper along the Gaza border said Wednesday he was posing no threat to soldiers at the time, after a video of the incident went viral. When gunmen shot at the aircraft, they were fired upon, the Israeli army said. Israel said on Tuesday that while the army would take disciplinary action over the taping of the Dec. 22 incident and dissemination of the video, the sniper had acted appropriately against a suspected ring-leader of a "riot" at the Gaza fence.But Tamer Abu Daqqa, an unemployed resident of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, said he was shot while trying to help other Palestinians escape Israeli army fire. Israel has declared a no-go zone close to the Gaza border which it has tried to enforce and has displayed video footage in which the frontier fence is seen being cut and breached and says explosives have been planted along it to target its troops. A total of 34 Palestinians have now been shot dead since the start of the protests that began on March 30, when tens of thousands took to the border area with Israel demanding the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Tamer Abu Daqqa, a resident of Khan Younis, Gaza, claims he is the man shown on an unauthorised video taken by an Israeli soldier being shot by a sniper through the border fence. Daqqa rejects Israeli claims he was a ringleader of violence and says he was assisting wounded Palestinians.