Israel tests putrid gas on Palestinians
Bilin, West Bank: Israeli troops seeking to quell protests over Israel's West Bank wall on Friday sprayed a foul-smelling substance code-named "skunk" and sent in undercover troops posing as Palestinians.
The use of undercover troops is rare in such circumstances, and the military said it was just the second time security forces had used "skunk," which it said was a non-lethal substance meant to reduce injury to protesters.
Confrontations over the wall have become increasingly violent, with two Palestinian demonstrators killed in recent months and an American supporter seriously injured.
Video footage of one incident at the West Bank village of Naalin showed three masked undercover agents surrounding a shirtless Palestinian demonstrator, throwing him to the ground and then calling for backup by uniformed soldiers.
Several rocks hurled by protesters struck the ground near the troops and one of them pulled a pistol and fired in the air as Palestinians fled the scene. Two Palestinians were arrested, the military said.
It had no comment on the use of undercover forces. At least half a dozen plainclothes agents were at the scene.
In nearby Bilin, troops sprayed a putrid mist that stuck to protesters' clothes. The military said the substance was non-toxic and not life-threatening and that its use was ordered by the top commander in the area to reduce injury to protesters. It said the mist was used once before, nearly a year ago.
Palestinians have been staging weekly demonstrations at both sites to protest the wall's route, which crosses through the villages and cuts farmers off from hundreds of acres of agricultural fields.
Israel says the wall - a mix of towering concrete walls and electronic fences - is needed to stop Palestinian fighters from crossing into Israel to carry out attacks. Palestinians call it a land grab because parts of it jut deep into the West Bank, cutting them off from territory they claim for a future state.
Israel began building the nearly 800-kilometre wall in 2002 and it is about two-thirds complete.
Israel has classified the protest areas as closed military zones and troops have clashed frequently and increasingly violently with protesters, some of whom hurl rocks at the soldiers.
In May, Israel's Justice Ministry opened a criminal investigation into the firing of tear gas shells at the demonstrations. Tear gas shells struck one of the two Palestinian demonstrators killed recently and injured the American.
Meanwhile, four Palestinian workers were wounded yesterday when a tunnel they were building to smuggle goods across the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip collapsed, Palestinian medics said.
The wounded were being treated for suffocation and other injuries in hospital. Two were in stable condition, medics said, adding that rescue crews were still scouring the area, fearing that others might still be trapped.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Interior Ministry said that Egyptian security forces had in recent days redoubled their efforts to find and destroy smuggling tunnels across the border that bisects the town of Rafah, and that they had found and destroyed "a number of tunnels."
Egypt has been under consistent international pressure to do more to stop the smuggling of weapons and other goods into the Gaza Strip since the blockade of the territory began in 2007.
