The Police Internal Investigations Department (Mahash) has launched a probe following footage from Monday that shows a Border Police officer tossing a stun grenade while blocking a vehicle's door and preventing the driver from fleeing, according to journalist Inbar Tvizer. The incident at Qalandia checkpoint drew public attention amid broader scrutiny of stun grenade use by Israeli police forces.
The Police Internal Investigations Department (Mahash) has officially opened a probe after footage from Sunday evening showed a Border Police officer tossing a stun grenade into a vehicle at the Qalandia checkpoint, journalist Inbar Tvizer reported on Monday afternoon. The development follows a series of escalations in the thread: what began Sunday at 22:04 Jerusalem as an unverified report of a stun grenade thrown into a vehicle near the checkpoint has, over the course of the night and Monday, evolved into a formal investigation with the officer suspended and the case referred to internal affairs.
The thread unfolded rapidly after Sunday's initial report. By version 2, journalist Ganem Ibrahim reported Palestinians had circulated footage, though it was not independently verified. A third version, at the same 22:04 timestamp, confirmed that Mahash had opened a formal probe. By version 4, the officer had been suspended and the case referred to Machash, according to Galei Tzahal. Subsequent versions added that the driver reportedly did not exit the vehicle, and that the officer's actions appeared inconsistent with operational procedures. Version 7 noted that the incident may have involved militants taunting forces prior to the grenade deployment.
The probe comes amid broader scrutiny of stun grenade use. As The Zioneer reported on June 17, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said he spoke with Police Commissioner Danny Levi about restricting stun grenade use to exceptional cases or removing them entirely, following separate protest-related violence. The Qalandia incident is not directly connected to that earlier discussion.
The investigation remains at an early stage. No findings or recommendations have been announced, and the precise circumstances that led the officer to deploy the stun grenade—including whether militants were indeed taunting forces beforehand, as one version suggests—remain to be formally established.
8 developments
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Source and signal
- Internal intake