Photos of an armed Israeli soldier trying to aggressively arrest a boy with a cast on his arm went around several social media sites this weekend.
The pictures show the Israeli soldier holding the 12-year-old in a headlock. Other photos show women trying to get a hold of the soldier and while others were trying to pull the Palestinian boy away from the soldier's grip, CNN reported.
The incident happened on the West Bank border where the Palestinian activists had their weekly protest against a construction of a settlement in the Nabi Saleh village on Friday.
The father of the boy, Bassem Tamimi, also took a video of the event that took place.
"This is very difficult for any father or mother to see their son or daughter in that way, being violently attacked," said Tamimi, who regularly takes footages of their protests.
The boy's 15-year-old sister was seen biting the soldier's hand so he would let go of her brother while other people in the scene shouted, "He is a little boy. His arm is broken," according to the Chicago Tribune.
The soldier can be seen struggling against the boy and the pile of women coming against him. It was then when a commanding officer assisted the soldier away from the scene. After letting go of the young boy, the Israeli soldier angrily threw a small stun grenade into a small crowd of people.
"I started fleeing from the soldier. In the end, he caught me and threw me on the ground, and hit me and my arm. He slammed my head on the rock," said the boy.
"I cannot stand by and see my brother near death," said A'hd Tamimi, the boy's sister. "Of course, I will go and help him. The soldier used way too much force. He is a young child with a broken arm, what is he able to do?"
"I am a mother. If a soldier attacks a young child and is doing something to him, I will do everything in order to release him from the hands of the soldier and free him," the boy's mother said.
The soldier's father says otherwise. "We are very proud of what we saw, proud of the restraint that he demonstrated, because without a doubt if [the] women had been injured, it would have ended very differently," said Arnon, the father on the Army Radio, according to Times of Israel. "Anyone can sit in their living room and judge the soldiers."
Culture Minister Miri Regev believes that the military protocol leaves the soldiers defenseless since the Palestinians were the ones throwing rocks at the soldiers, according to Mondoweiss. "Anyone who tries to harm Israeli citizens and Israel Defense Forces soldiers needs to know that he has forfeited his life. We need to establish immediately that a soldier who is attacked is authorized to respond with fire - period."
