Youth to Undergo an Operation after Being Struck by a High Velocity Tear-Gas Projectile During Nabi Saleh Demonstration

The army laid siege on the village and resumed using High Velocity Tear-Gas projectiles against demonstrators in Nabi Saleh, causing serious injury. The projectiles have already critically injured American demonstrator Tristan Anderson in Ni'ilin (March 2009) and the death of Bassem Abu Rahmah in Bil'in (April 2009). In total, 11 were injured as a result of the military's brutal assault on the village.

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Women suffering from the effect of tear-gas inside their homes. Pricture credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills
Women suffering from the effect of tear-gas inside their homes. Pricture credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills

Already hours before the planned march to the water spring that was taken over by settlers, massive forces closed all exits and entrances to the 500 people village, in an attempt to cut it off from the rest of the world, as they have done in the past three weeks in a raw. Even more soldiers and Border Police officers then moved into the village, taking positions at the village's main junction and on a rooftop of one of the houses.

The soldiers opened attacked the demonstration on sight, in a torrent of tear-gas. As clashes developed among the stone houses of the village, soldiers escalated their use of power to include rubber-coated bullets and high velocity tear-gas projectiles, as well as a water cannon ejaculating foul water referred to by soldiers simply as the skunk.

A high velocity tear-gas projectile in the hands of a resident of Nabi Saleh. Oren Ziv/ActiveStills
A high velocity tear-gas projectile in the hands of a resident of Nabi Saleh. Picture credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills

According to the manufacturer of the high velocity tear-gas projectiles are not meant for use in open-air crowd control situations, but rather as indoor barricade penetrators to be shoot through interior doors and drywalls. On March 13th, 2009, American citizen Tristan Anderson suffered numerous condensed fractures to the skull above the right eye socket after being struck with a high velocity tear-gas projectile. He suffered permanent and extensive brain tissue damage. The use of the high velocity was stopped after Tristan Anderson's injury, but resumed a short while after, which resulted in the April 17th, 2009, death of Bil'in activist Bassem Abu Rahmah. Abu Rahmah was killed as a result of being hit in the chest with a high velocity tear-gas projectile.

Following Abu Rahmah's death, the use of the high velocity projectiles ceased, but today, only a week after the army resumed using them once more, a protester was seriously hurt as a result of their negligent use. An 18 year-old resident of the village is scheduled to undergo surgery at the Salfeet hospital, where a platinum implant will be inserted to his leg where the bone was crushed from the impact of the projectile.

Eleven injuries from rubber-coated bullets and tear-gas projectiles were recorded at the end of the day, with four requiring hospitalization. The windows of a car were shattered by rubber-coated bullets and those of two houses were broken by tear-gas projectiles, that also clouded the houses with a gas.
Women covering their noses in reaction to the foul smel from the "skunk". Picture credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills
Women covering their noses in reaction to the foul smel from the "skunk". Picture credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills

Late in the afternoon the army drove a water cannon into the village, which sprayed rancid water at people, all over the streets of the village and into houses, leaving stanch to hand in the air over the village for days.

Soldiers only left the village on sunset, driving out with their alarms on in one direction, as the ambulance evacuating the day's last injured person to the hospital drove howling in the opposite direction.