Israel defense minister backs sniper filmed shooting Palestinian

JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman praised Tuesday a sniper who shot a Palestinian protester in the Gaza Strip after a video footage of soldiers cheering at the shooting went viral on social networks.

The video shows some Israeli soldiers cheering after one of three unarmed Palestinians was shot and fell to the ground near the fence between the besieged Palestinian enclave and Israel during a rally on Friday.

Lieberman, leader of the ultra-nationalist party of Israel Our Home, praised the sniper who "deserves a citation," while the soldier should be condemned for filming the incident without authorization.

After a one-day investigation of the incident, the military said in a statement released on Tuesday that "it should be noted that these do not suit the degree of restraint expected of Israel Defense Forces soldiers and will be dealt by commanders accordingly."

The Palestinians near the fence were warned before the shooting, said the statement. After they stayed near the fence, "a single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organizing and leading this incident, while he was a few meters from the fence," it read.

"He was hit in the leg and injured," the statement added.

The incident occurred during a Friday march towards the fence, which is part of a six-week protest in the Gaza Strip in demand of acknowledgment of the Palestinian refugees' "right of return" to the lands that Israel seized during the 1948 war, known to Israelis as the Independence War and to Palestinians as the Nakba, or "the catastrophe." Enditem