An Israeli Police Officer Threw a Grenade Into a Car Carrying Palestinians and Fired After Them

Israeli police have opened an investigation after the publication of a video showing a Border Police officer throwing a stun grenade into a car carrying young Palestinians during a raid in the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The surveillance-camera footage, recorded on Sunday, July 5, was published by the Israeli human-rights organization B’Tselem. The video shows an officer approaching the car and shouting at the people inside.

After a brief exchange, he pulls a stun grenade from his belt and throws it through the open door of the vehicle. The officer then slams the door shut as the driver tries to get out.

In the recording, he can be heard shouting: “Shut your mouth. Who do you think you’re talking to?” A few seconds later, the grenade explodes, and the area around the car fills with smoke.

Two passengers climb out of the vehicle from the opposite side. After that, the officer appears in the video to fire his rifle as they try to take cover.

B’Tselem said everyone in the car survived.

Police said the officer acted “not in accordance with procedure,” and that the investigation is being handled by the Israeli Justice Ministry’s department for investigating police conduct. The officer was suspended from duty pending the inquiry.

Stun grenades are designed to disorient with a flash and a loud blast, but they can cause severe injuries, especially when they explode at close range.

According to the UN, since 2020 Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 1,175 Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank. At least a quarter of those killed were children. No one has been charged in any of these cases.

During the same raid in the refugee camp, Israeli forces shot dead 16-year-old Walid Abu Sneineh and wounded three other Palestinians, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. According to the ministry, two Palestinian children also sustained lower-limb injuries from Israeli military gunfire.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Late on Sunday evening, a four-month-old Palestinian infant, Ahmad Maaruf Zaid, died. His family told The Guardian that Israeli forces did not allow them to cross a checkpoint to reach a waiting ambulance.

Relatives had to take the seriously ill child to Ramallah themselves along dirt mountain roads, delaying treatment by more than an hour.

A representative of the Israel Defense Forces denied that troops prevented the family from crossing the checkpoint to obtain medical care.

Last week, during another Israeli raid in Ramallah, troops killed 15-year-old Amir Ahmad Jaber.

B’Tselem executive director Yuli Novak said that “the mass and unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy that permits killings of Palestinians and violence against them without any accountability.”