Palestinian killed by Israeli jeep in West Bank

QAFR MALIK, West Bank — An Israeli army jeep struck and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, with the military and locals giving conflicting accounts of the circumstances.

A military spokeswoman said the jeep, which was in the village of Qafr Malik as part of an operation to arrest suspected fighters, accidentally hit the Palestinian after he threw a petrol bomb at it.

"The driver was startled and swerved, hitting the man," she said, adding that a military investigation would be launched.

Local resident Nail Abdul Latah Al Hajj denied the Palestinian had attacked the jeep, saying the man was walking to work at a chicken farm when he was run down and then crushed as the vehicle crashed into a wall and overturned.

Speaking to Reuters, Hajj said the man's death sparked confrontations between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli troops. The military spokeswoman said the disturbances were already under way when the collision happened.

In a separate incident, the army said it was investigating soldiers who were filmed beating an unarmed Palestinian during a protest in a West Bank refugee camp on Friday.

The video posted on social media showed the Palestinian being hit with a rifle butt and wrestled to the ground, where he was punched further and a soldier's knee was pressed against his head. He was then handcuffed and taken away.

"If necessary, disciplinary action will be taken against [the soldiers]. Based on preliminary investigation, it appears that the conduct displayed in the incident is inconsistent with that expected of IDF [Israel Defence Forces] soldiers," the military said in a statement.

Israeli forces regularly mount raids in the West Bank in search of suspected fighters, often touching off clashes with local residents. On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers shot dead a member of the Islamist group Hamas in the town of Jenin in one such operation.