Israeli soldier scuffles with Palestinian boy

SPH Brightcove Video
Video that's going viral shows an Israeli soldier in a protracted scuffle with a Palestinian boy whose arm is in a cast, during a protest against settlements in the West Bank.

(REUTERS) - A weekly Friday protest in the West Bank was anything but routine.

An Israeli Defense Force soldier got into a protracted scuffle with a Palestinian boy he was trying to restrain - and it was all caught on camera by local residents in a video that's gone viral.

The boy was throwing stones at soldiers in the village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah, during a protest against Jewish settlements.

Israel has come under intense international criticism over its settlement activities, regarded as illegal under international law.

Village women tried to intervene, with one of them biting the soldier at one point to make him let go of the boy.

The soldier allowed the boy to go but threw tear gas at the crowd as he walked away.

An Israeli spokesperson said other protesters also hurled rocks at the soldiers and that one Palestinian was arrested.

That arrest was then stopped when the crowd attacked a soldier and authorities decided they did not want the violence to escalate any further.

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