Israeli soldiers heard cheering at Gaza sniper’s killing shot

ISRAELI ministers have defended soldiers heard laughing and cheering on a grainy video clip showing an apparently unarmed Palestinian man being shot dead on the Gaza border.

The brief video appears to have been filmed by an Israeli soldier through a pair of binoculars and captures the moment a sniper shot an unidentified Palestinian near the border fence that separates Israel from Gaza.

“Do you have a bullet in the barrel?” asks a voice off-camera in Hebrew. His fellow soldier then cheers after the gunshot rings out, crying: “Wow, what a video. Yes! Son of a whore.”

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said the video was from Dec 22 2017 and not from the recent wave of protests in Gaza, in which Israeli forces have killed 31 Palestinians since the end of March.

A spokesman said the man who was shot was one of the leaders of “a violent riot” on the Gaza border.

The military said the soldier’s decision to film the shooting and the coarse language used in the video “do not suit the degree of restraint expected of IDF soldiers and will be dealt with by commanders accordingly”.

The video clip drew immediate condemnation from Palestinians and human rights groups.

“This documented case of extrajudicial killing highlights a further urgency for the International Criminal Court to open an immediate investigation,” said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian official.

Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli defence minister, said: “The sniper deserves a commendation, the photographer a court martial. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but when you face tense situations, sometimes you let out those tensions.”