Israeli Border Police Throw Stun Grenade Into Palestinian Car During Qalandiya Raid

Israeli Border Police threw a stun grenade into a Palestinian car during a raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, with the officer forcing the door shut as the grenade detonated and filled the vehicle with smoke.

“Moment: An Israeli soldier hurls a stun grenade into the Palestinians' car”

Al Jazeera

The CCTV footage released by B’Tselem shows the officer approaching the car, shouting at the people inside, then pulling a stun grenade from his belt and throwing it through the open door before the passengers escaped from the other side.

Al Jazeera

Israeli police said the officer acted "not in accordance with procedure" and that the justice ministry's department for investigating police officers was handling the case, while the officer was suspended pending the investigation.

In the same raid, Palestinian health ministry figures cited by multiple outlets said Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Walid Abu Sneineh and wounded three other Palestinians, and the BBC also reported two other children suffered gunshot wounds to their lower limbs.

The BBC further reported that a critically ill four-month-old baby, Ahmed Zaid, died after Israeli troops refused to open a gate blocking the main entrance to his village west of Ramallah, delaying access to urgent medical care.

Israeli police opened an investigation after CCTV footage showed the Border Police officer throwing the stun grenade into the car and forcing the door closed, and the BBC said police told Israeli media the officer had not acted "in accordance with procedure".

The officer was heard shouting "Shut your mouth. Who are you talking to like that?" as the situation escalated, and the BBC described the blast and smoke visible while the two passengers escaped before the officer appeared to fire his rifle.

BBC

B’Tselem said all those in the car survived, and the BBC reported that police transferred the incident to the department of internal police investigations.

In a separate incident described by the BBC, the head of the local UN human rights office, Ajith Sunghay, said Ahmed Zaid’s death was "senseless" and "emblematic of an occupying power continuing to show utter disregard" for Palestinian rights.

The BBC also reported that the Israeli military told it its troops "allowed the baby and his family to pass without any delay" to continue receiving medical treatment.

The grenade incident and the accompanying raid took place as UN data cited by the Guardian said that since 2020 Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,175 Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, with at least a quarter of those killed being children.

“Current section In a video circulated on social media, the officer is also seen insulting the driver, shouting, 'Shut your mouth, who are you talking to like that”

Haaretz

The Guardian reported that no one has been charged over any of these deaths, and it said the same raid on the refugee camp left Walid Abu Sneineh dead and three other Palestinians wounded, with two Palestinian children injured in the lower limbs.

B’Tselem executive director Yuli Novak said the "widespread and unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank" was the result of a broader Israeli policy that allows killings and violent abuse "without any accountability."

The Guardian also described how Ahmad Marouf Zaid, a four-month-old baby, died after Israeli forces blocked his family from crossing a checkpoint to reach a waiting ambulance, and it said the family drove the severely ill baby to Ramallah themselves, delaying treatment by more than an hour.

Across the same reporting, the BBC said last week’s Ramallah raid killed 15-year-old Amir Ahmad Jaber, placing the stun grenade episode within a sequence of raids and deaths in the occupied West Bank.