Friends of Freedom and Justice, Bil’in, report that "live ammunition" was used on the weekly demonstration against the confiscatory wall, apparently rubber bullets:
Today in Bil’in village demonstrators against the apartheid wall and illegal Israeli settlements were met with live ammunition, tear gas (in both plastic and aluminum canisters), rubber bullets, and sound bombs from the Israeli army. Rubber bullets and tear gas canisters injured six demonstrators….
The army entered the village and attempted to arrest two of the Palestinian activists. Israeli and International activists physically intervened in order to stop the arrests. Soldiers shot live ammunition into the air during the conflict in an attempt to scare and disperse the crowd. The crowd consisting of many Israeli solidarity activists did not disperse and began chanting “shame on you” in Hebrew. Mean while many soldiers were entering from another entrance point in the apartheid fence. They attempted to surround the demonstrators from three directions, but were unsuccessful.
Because of the strength tear gas, a joke was made that the army must have been using the new and improved 2010-edition tear gas. The last two weeks of the new year have been marked by an increase in arrests and harassment of Palestinian popular resistance organizers and activists in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, the USA is sending in more advanced weapons to Israel, cutting off
the life-line for Pals, the tunnels, and our senators like McCain & Lieberman have just visited Israel, telling the Israelis the USA will not use any sticks, but only keep offering more carrots to Israel , so it can defy official USA foreign policy. It does not get much better than this for irony fans.