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JERUSALEM, May 7 -- An elite Israel Prison Services ( IPS) unitoperating undercover in a Palestinian West Bank village took partin stone throwing incidents against army forces deployed to thearea to quell riots, Israeli officials told Xinhua Monday. The details came to light during recent in-camera testimony by twomembers of the IPS' Massada unit in the trial of Arab Knesset(parliament) member Mohammed Barakeh, who the army said assaulted asoldier at a demonstration in the village of Bil'in seven yearsago. The Massada unit, more normally tasked with breaking up prisonriots, in 2005 operated in the field under IDF command duringweekly demonstrations by the village's Palestinian residents andoutside supporters against a security fence that cut farmers offfrom part of their land. During the weekly protests, hundreds of opponents of the barrierwould often hurl firebombs, rocks, and abuse at IDF soldiersdeployed to keep the rioters away from the fence. The troops wouldrespond by trying to apprehend the ringleaders, and often firingtear gas and rubbers bullets to drive others away. "We were sent to counter the disruptions at the separation barrierin Bil'in," one of the officers said in testimony given in a TelAviv courtroom two weeks ago. "It was the first time I wasundercover. Two men were arrested, they were Palestinians," hesaid, according to the Ha'aretz daily. The witness told the defense counsel that, in order to better blendin with the demonstrators, he would also throw stones "in thegeneral direction" of the soldiers. It was not divulged if any of the troops were hit by stones he hadthrown, of if he was hit by the army's counter-measures. The unit's commander said in his testimony that "an enormousdemonstration began, coming down from the village," adding that hehad received intelligence information of a major riot brewing onthe day in question. He noted that "we had several forces in the field, one of them wasan undercover force whose mission was to provide intelligence andcarry out 'quality' arrests," with a uniformed "rescue" forcestanding by. "It seemed that the army was losing control," he said. "Some 500demonstrators came down and ignored the orders of the deputybattalion commander, who was in charge of the operation, and simplypassed by him without blinking. The army forces swiftly lost theirability to effectively control the situation," he said. "When the undercover unit reported, it identified 'quality' targets- that is substantial activists who led the demonstration, hurledstones and constituted a danger to the forces. I ordered theundercover forces to carry out arrests. I caught the back of a manwho attacked one of my soldiers, and identified him as MK Barakeh.As far as I'm concerned if an undercover soldier arrested someone,he must be a quality target," the officer said, according toHa'aretz. In remarks to Xinhua on Tuesday, IPS Spokesman Sivan Weitzmanexpressed surprise over the issue's publication, noting that "thistook place in 2005, there have been no such operations of this kindsince then." The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman refused specific comment on theincident, stressing that the affair was an IPS issue. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Spun Polyester Thread Manufacturer , Cone Sewing Thread for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits High Tenacity Sewing Thread.
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