Smoke grenades in Naalin (archives)
Photo: AFP
Deputy State Prosecutor Yehoshua Lamberger has ordered the police to update protocols pertaining to the use of crowd control measures in demonstration dispersals, Ynet learned Monday.
The order followed several cases in which demonstrators suffered injuries by gas and smoke grenade fire. The nature of the injuries suggested a possible misuse of firearms and crowd control measures by security forces.
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Lamberger said that even if the situations at hand called for the use of gas and smoke grenade, aiming them at the physical person of the rioters was wrong.
He cited four relevant cases from the past several months, which resulted in Police Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) investigations against the officers involved.
The four cases pertained to a 2008 riot in the town of Naalin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, during which a Palestinian demonstrator was shot, and two 2009 riots which left a Spanish reported, a US citizen and one Israeli seriously wounded.
Immediately following the incidents, the deputy state prosecutor ordered investigations into the possible misuse of crowd control measures by Border Guard officers, and the alleged fire of such measures directly at civilian population.
The results of the probes prompted Lamberger to order all crowd control measures use protocols and procedures be updates, so as to avoid any future reoccurrences.