#VIDEO | Israeli soldier headbutts Palestinian teen

Maan News Agency | July 26, 2012
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HEBRON (Ma’an) — An Israeli soldier was caught on camera headbutting a Palestinian teenager on Wednesday, according to footage captured by a volunteer for Israeli organization B’Tselem.

The incident occurs at an Israeli army checkpoint in the West Bank city. Soldiers order a group of young Palestinians to present their ID cards, and one of the teenagers is shown arguing with the soldier.

An Israeli officer arrives at the scene and is seen, at 1:05 in the video, headbutting the teenager, identified by B’Tselem as 17-year-old Thaer Ghanam.

Ghanam can be seen bleeding from his face as the soldier continues to assault him.

B’Tselem says its volunteer stopped filming and went outside, where he filmed Ghanam being arrested and put into an army jeep blindfolded and handcuffed. The teenager was later released and treated in a hospital in Hebron for a broken nose, B’Tselem said in a statement.

Israel’s army said in a statement that a group of Palestinians had refused to identify themselves to soldiers who were conducting “routine activity” in Hebron.

However, at the start of the footage the soldier can be seen holding green Palestinian ID cards as he talks to the Palestinian youths.

“When the commander of the force arrived at the scene he was brutally attacked by one of the Palestinians, an incident which doesn’t appear in the video,” the military said in a statement.

The army added that the video seemed to have been edited and did not reflect the incident as it happened.

B’Tselem said the video sequence included all video footage from the incident in consecutive order.

“All breaks in the footage are due to the cameraman stopping the filming, during the incident and while leaving his house to continue to film in the street,” the human rights organization said.

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