Israeli soldiers fire in air to disperse Western diplomats in West Bank
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli soldiers fired warning shots Wednesday to disperse a group of senior Western diplomats, Palestinian officials and journalists as they toured a Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to statements by the Israeli military and the Palestinian Authority and television footage from the scene.
No one was reported injured, but the event intensified the friction between Israel and its foreign partners amid growing international criticism of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The gunfire came two days after Britain, France and Canada called for Israel to end the war in Gaza, and a day after Britain suspended trade talks with Israel and criticized its support for settlements in the West Bank.
Diplomats from all three countries were among a large diplomatic delegation Wednesday that toured the city of Jenin in the West Bank, with officials from the Palestinian Authority, the semiautonomous institution that administers parts of the territory, including Jenin.
The authority had organized the tour to highlight how the Israeli military, seeking to stamp out armed groups, had captured and partly demolished an area on the edge of the city. The neighborhood is known as the Jenin refugee camp because it mostly houses the descendants of Palestinians forced to flee their homes during the wars surrounding the creation of the state of Israel.
Toward the end of the tour, Israeli soldiers in the neighborhood fired at least seven shots to disperse some of the visiting officials as they stood about 80 yards from the soldiers, on the other side of a closed gate, according to several videos verified by The New York Times. The footage showed that the shooting began as officials milled around conducting interviews with journalists, several of them with their backs turned to the soldiers.
After the gunshots rang out, the delegation quickly retreated from the barrier and some members took cover on a side street.
The gunfire occurred a few hundred yards from where an Israeli soldier fired on a prominent Palestinian journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, killing her, in May 2022.
In a statement, the Israeli military said its troops had fired warning shots at the delegation Wednesday because it had “deviated from the approved route and entered an area where they were not authorized to be.” The military said it “regrets the inconvenience caused,” adding that it was reviewing what happened.
Mohammad Jarrar, the mayor of Jenin, contested the military’s claim, saying that Palestinian officials had agreed on the route they took with Israeli counterparts earlier in the week. “There was no provocation,” Jarrar said. “Only diplomats and journalists were there, and the visit plan was attached to the official invitation.”
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said the Israeli military’s conduct was unacceptable and that he would summon the Israeli ambassador to France to explain what happened.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called on Israel to hold the shooters accountable. “Any threats on diplomats’ lives are unacceptable,” Kallas said at a news briefing.
Representatives of the EU were among at least 20 diplomatic missions on the tour.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.