According to Israeli sources, an Israeli border guard accused of killing an 11-year old child at a non-violent protest in a Palestinian village last week has been suspended from his duties and placed under house arrest. While the border guard's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Omri, maintains that the guard acted independently, Omri recently failed a polygraph test and was put on a ten-day leave of absence.
According to eyewitnesses, the shooting took place as the non-violent march in the village of Nil'in was dwindling down, and a group of young boys were sitting under an olive tree. An Israeli armored jeep belonging to the Border Guard drove up and one of the guards opened fire with an M-16 rifle, shooting Ahmed Moussa through the head.
Brigadier-General Shlomi Even-Paz, who heads the Border Guard Command, launched an investigation into the incident following the release of a video of the shooting, taken by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, and released by Israeli news daily Yedioth Ahranoth.
Most Palestinians killed at the hands of Israeli forces do not have their deaths investigated. Only the rare instances in which video or still footage exists and is published in the Israeli press do investigations take place.
