JERUSALEM — Security-camera video showing two unarmed Palestinians crumpling to the ground during a lull in a stone-throwing clash with Israeli soldiers revived allegations by human rights activists Tuesday that the troops often use excessive force.
The Israeli rights group B’Tselem said the images back its findings that troops killed the teens without cause by firing live rounds from more than 200 meters away. The soldiers were in “zero danger” at the time, said Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said, “It was a life-threatening situation, so the officers acted accordingly.” He said he hadn’t seen the video but alleged the images had been manipulated through editing.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a senior spokesman, said preliminary findings show forces fired only rubber-coated steel pellets, a standard means of crowd control, not live fire.
The United Nations and the U.S. State Department called on the Israeli authorities to conduct a transparent investigation.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco told the Security Council’s monthly Mideast briefing: “It is of serious concern that initial information appears to indicate that the two Palestinians killed were both unarmed and appeared to pose no direct threat.”
At issue is a clash between Israeli troops and Palestinian stone-throwers Thursday a few hundred yards from an Israeli military base, Ofer. On that day, Palestinians marked the anniversary of their uprooting in the war over Israel’s 1948 creation by holding marches and protests in the West Bank and Gaza.
B’Tselem and other human rights groups have alleged that Israeli troops often use excessive force in putting down Palestinian stone-throwing protests.
Lerner, the army spokesman, dismissed the allegations: “We are charged with and committed to safeguarding human life, and we address the threats with necessary force when required.”
