An off-duty Givati soldier from Kiryat Arba who fired in the air during a riot is expected to get five-and-a-half months in prison under a plea bargain. The man was filmed by B'Tselem human rights activists as he fired a gun to scare off angry local Arabs during the riots that followed the forced expulsion of Jews from the Peace House in Hevron.
Prosecutors accused the man of firing unnecessarily, ruling that his life was not in danger. The five-month sentence would serve as punishment both for firing in the air and for an older charge involving illegal weapons possession.
The firing incident occurred during a fight that broke out in a valley between Kiryat Arba and Hevron. The documented filming shows the off-duty soldier dressed in civilian clothes firing from a Tabor rifle and threatening the cameraman to stop filming or else he would break his camera. Police, together with the Military Police, identified thr soldier, partially by the type of rounds fired, which are primarily used by the Givati Brigade.
“IDF soldiers in possession of weaponry must always remember the rules and use it only when one’s life is endangered, or when one has received a specific order, which did not occur in the present incident,” IDF officials stated.
The defense attorney said, “We will present the [plea bargain] arrangement in an upcoming discussion in court.” Regarding his client’s firing into the air, the defense attorney stated, “The firing that my client presented was not intended, G-d Forbid, against anyone, and this one could view in the documentation of the incident, as additional security officers performed a similar action of firing into the air during the confrontation at the scene. A plea bargain indeed includes an old charge against my client. However, I am unable to add details beyond this.”