An Israeli settler living in the Israeli-held West Bank received minor injuries after kicking a waving Palestinian flag which was fitted with an improvised explosive device (IED). The incident occurred on Sunday morning.
The man was identified as Israeli Defence Force (IDF) reservist 28-year-old Israeli Levi. Following the blast, he was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital.
“It was a serious bomb, but luckily I gave it a kick and the explosion happened to the side, and not on me. I am not afraid of anything. We will bust up everyone who did this," Levi was quoted as saying by Ynet.
The incident occurred near the West Bank settlement of Kohav HaShahar along Route 458 when it exploded.
The video of the incident went viral on social media leaving netizens divided as some worried about the condition of the man and others questioning his decision to walk all the way from his car to kick a flag lying offroad while tensions between Israelis and Palestinians remain high in West Bank due to the longstanding issues between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers as well as the ongoing Gaza war.
The IDF said troops have been dispatched to the area to find who the perpetrators were.
The incident also goes on to show that tensions between Israeli and Palestinians remain high in West Bank, captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and has been a focal point of contention ever since.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal because they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of civilian populations into occupied territories.
Issues between Palestinians and Israeli settlers have also become a major cause for headache for Israel’s ironclad ally, the United States.
The US is planning sanctions on IDF’s ultra-orthodox battalion Netzah Yehuda as well as other units for human rights violations.
Israeli forces carry out regular raids on towns and cities in the Israel-held West Bank, and violence has soared since the war in Gaza broke out last year. The Israeli army said it had killed ten militants in a three-day “counterterrorism" raid on Nur Shams.
Over 480 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers there since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7. At least 13 Israelis, among them two members of security forces, have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank, during the same period.
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