Troops apprehended the Palestinians, both 19, after settlers alerted them to the men's presence. The sergeant in charge said he fired the fatal shots after one of the men lunged at him with a glass bottle, and the other with a syringe he had found on the ground. The army will likely launch an investigation into at least one of the incidents. Advertisement
The incident occurred yesterday morning when Avri Ran, a settler living in the settlement outpost of Gidonim, spotted two Palestinians passing nearby. Ran alerted the outpost security coordinator, who in turn contacted the military.
An IDF Humvee arrived carrying four soldiers from Kfir's Nachshon Battalion under the command of a sergeant. The troops apprehended the Palestinians and seized two pickaxes they were carrying (one witness said the security coordinator himself confiscated them).
The Palestinians said they had been searching for metal next to a waterway with the intention of selling it. The sergeant asked for identification, but was told they had none. Instead, the Palestinians told him their identification numbers and he radioed them in to headquarters.
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