Palestinian killed in West Bank demonstration

Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian man Friday during a demonstration against the construction of the West Bank separation barrier, medics and witnesses said. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said paramilitary border police opened fire with "riot dispersal equipment" when they came under a heavy barrage of rocks from about 200 protesters in the West Bank village of Nil'in, near Ramallah. Israel's Channel 10 TV, without quoting a source, reported that the man was shot in the heart by a marksman firing a .22-caliber rifle. Palestinian hospital staff said the man, Yussef Aqil Srour, 35, died from a small bullet wound to the chest. Palestinian witnesses said he was not attacking the Israelis but trying to drag a wounded protester to safety when he was hit. The village is the site of weekly protests by Palestinian and foreign activists opposed to the construction of Israel's separation barrier, which cuts across village land. Israel says the barrier–a mix of towering concrete walls and electronic fences–is needed to stop Palestinian militants from crossing into Israel to carry out attacks. Palestinians call it a land grab because it dips deep into the West Bank at several points, cutting them off from territory they claim for a future state. A series of Israeli Supreme Court rulings has forced the government to reroute the barrier closer to the cease-fire line that separates the West Bank from Israel. The weekly Friday demonstrations at Nil'in often escalate into violent confrontations with Palestinians hurling rocks at Israeli forces. During one such demonstration in April, a Palestinian man was killed when a tear gas canister hit him in the chest. Tristan Anderson, 38, from Oakland, California, has been hospitalized in Tel Aviv for two months after he was struck in the head by a tear gas canister fired by border police. Anderson has just been moved from intensive care to rehabilitation.