A Palestinian man rushed a soldier’s Molotov cocktail at a checkpoint in the Northwest Bank on Saturday night, aiming from close range but missing it.
Video of the incident shows the man getting out of a car at the checkpoint, which is near the Kdumim settlement. He talks to the soldier and speaks to him for several minutes before pulling out the firebag, lighting it and driving it at the resulting soldier.
The man then runs away as the soldier watches, unresponsive to the attack.
Get The Daily of Israel’s Daily Edition by Email and don’t miss our top stories for free
The IDF said soldiers were searching for the culprit, adding that no one had been injured and no damage had been caused by the incident.
הערב בשומרון:
מחבל יידה בקבוק תעברה מטווח אפס לעבר חייל, ונמלט. מהתיעוד נראה שהחייל לא הגיב בירי.
בחווארה נפצע קל ישראלי בן 25 מיידוי אבנים ופונה לבית החולים pic.twitter.com/UvxnyFAliM– Cunnart Carmel כרמל דנגור (@carmeldangor) 19 December 2020
According to several Hebrew media reports, the army was examining the soldier’s behavior, as well as other soldiers at the checkpoint, and watching the incident in earnest.
The Israeli military said it was investigating Saturday night after Palestine.
Solicitors were fired after the video went public.
“This story is just insane,” tweeted Yamina MK Bezalel Smotrich. “But it’s not the soldier’s fault.” The judicial system in the State of Israel that conducts itself in Sodom is to blame. ”
He seemed to be referring to claims on the right side that soldiers ’hands are often tied in responding to attacks because they fear they could be condemned for what they did.
Jerusalem Minister Rafi Peretz of the Jewish Home Party said the event should end with “neutral terrorism.”
“Dead or alive,” he wrote on Twitter, saying IDF leaders must ensure that such a thing does not happen “again.”
Earlier this month Palestine was killed and injured after he refused to listen to security guard calls at the Qalandiya checkpoint. Police said the man was walking in part of the checkpoint reserved for vehicles. When guards asked him to stop again and he did not surrender, they shot him in the lower body.
That shooting came amid growing tensions in the region, including violent fighting in a nearby refugee camp between Palestinian residents and Israeli troops. On the same day, December 7, six Israeli border soldiers were injured while residents of the Qalandiya refugee camp rioted and blocked cinderblocks and other heavy objects by officers from roofs during an early morning attack. All six suffered minor injuries. Some were in hospital. The soldiers were scared for life and opened fire on the protesters, Border Police said.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health said at least four Palestinians were injured, three seriously and one moderate, all of them charged with live fire.