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Israel Jails Soldier Who Assaulted Palestinian during US Media Interview

Israeli Border police officers secure the scene where a suspected ramming attack took place in Jerusalem, February 10, 2023. (Reuters)
Israeli Border police officers secure the scene where a suspected ramming attack took place in Jerusalem, February 10, 2023. (Reuters)
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Israel Jails Soldier Who Assaulted Palestinian during US Media Interview

Israeli Border police officers secure the scene where a suspected ramming attack took place in Jerusalem, February 10, 2023. (Reuters)
Israeli Border police officers secure the scene where a suspected ramming attack took place in Jerusalem, February 10, 2023. (Reuters)

Israel's military on Monday jailed for 10 days a soldier who assaulted a Palestinian activist as he was speaking to a US journalist, but gave an account of the incident that was disputed by the interviewer.

The incident in Hebron also set off an internal Israeli flap, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir - one of several hundred hardline Jewish settlers living in the flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank - voicing full support for the soldier.

In a video posted on Twitter by Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker magazine, the soldier grabs Issa Amro by his jacket and neck and throws him to the ground. He then lands a kick to Amro's backside before being pulled away by another soldier.

"I never had a source assaulted in front of me until today when an Israeli soldier who stopped my interview did this," Wright tweeted.

The military said the event began when the soldier, guarding a military post, asked the Palestinian who approached the post to step away.

"In response, the Palestinian began recording and cursing the soldier. A verbal confrontation followed, which soon became a physical confrontation, during which the soldier hit the Palestinian," it said in a statement.

"As the video shows, the soldier did not act as expected and did not follow the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) code of conduct."

However, in a Twitter response, Wright said: "The IDF misrepresented what led to this. The soldier initiated the encounter, Amro did not curse him only asked to call his commander. Nothing to justify the violent assault that followed."

The military declined to comment further.

Ben-Gvir called the soldier's sentence - which included a suspension from active combat duties - a "disgrace" and described Amro as an anarchist.

"I fully support the soldier, who did not remain silent. Soldiers deserve to be backed up, not jailed," Ben-Gvir tweeted.

Amro, described by Wright as a peace activist, accused the minister of trying to get him killed.

"The soldiers are listening to @itamarbengvir not to their military occupation commanders," Amro tweeted.

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US Envoy in Beirut for Talks after Lebanon, Hezbollah Approve Truce Draft

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike near the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 18 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike near the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 18 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
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US Envoy in Beirut for Talks after Lebanon, Hezbollah Approve Truce Draft

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike near the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 18 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike near the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 18 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)

US envoy Amos Hochstein landed in Beirut on Tuesday for talks with officials on a truce between armed group Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon's state news agency said, hours after a proposal drafted by Washington won a nod from the Iran-backed group.

The visit indicates progress in US-led diplomacy aimed at ending a conflict which spiraled into all-out war in late September, when Israel launched a major offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Both the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have agreed to the US ceasefire proposal that was submitted in writing last week and made some comments on the content, Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, told Reuters on Monday.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Hezbollah endorsed its long-time ally Berri to negotiate over a ceasefire, but both it and Israel have escalated the fight as the political efforts carried on.

A diplomat familiar with the talks cautioned that details still needed to be ironed out and these could still hold up a final agreement.

Khalil said Israel was trying to negotiate "under fire", a reference to an escalation of its bombardment of Beirut and the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs. "This won't affect our position," he said.

He declined to detail the notes that Lebanon made on the draft but said they were presented "in a positive atmosphere" and in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

Its terms require Hezbollah to have no armed presence in the area between the Lebanese-Israeli border and the Litani River, which runs some 30 km (20 miles) north of the frontier.