Israel Border Police confirms firing live rounds into West Bank buildings on day Melbourne student was hit in the eye
In short:
Israeli border police have confirmed firing live rounds at buildings in the West Bank town of Abu Dis on the day an Australian student was injured.
Police have not taken responsibility for her injuries, saying locals were throwing rocks at police when they arrived to protect an Israeli citizen.
What's next?
Doctors in Melbourne are racing to save the vision in 20-year-old Ranem Abu Izneid's right eye, where shrapnel hit.
Israel Border Police have confirmed they fired live rounds at buildings in a West Bank town this month, on the day an Australian student was hit in the face by shrapnel.
But they have responded to inquiries about responsibility for her injuries, which may result in her losing vision in her right eye.
On November 15, Ranem Abu Izneid, 20, was in her accomodation in the town of Abu Dis when she heard a commotion from the street below.
Loading...The dentistry student at Al-Quds University, east of Jerusalem, said she was hit in the face by shrapnel from a bullet fired into the window frame, which shattered on impact.
"I want to be able to see again," Ms Izneid said in a video supplied to the ABC by the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA).
"I want to be able to achieve my dreams again."
Video circulating on social media channel Abu Ali Express shows an orthodox Jewish man at the intersection a few hundred metres down from where Ms Izneid lived, around the same time on November 15.
The man can be seen shouting in Arabic "go away from here" at Palestinian onlookers, before a car that appears to be his is set alight.
Video on the Telegram channel shows Border Police arriving in an armoured vehicle.
In response to questions about the incident, Border Police confirmed its officers had been in Abu Dis on the day.
"The security forces entered Abu Dis in order to rescue a citizen who was attacked there," a spokesperson told the ABC.
"Rioters at the place threw rocks and marble slates on the forces from the roofs of homes and, in that way, endangered their lives.
"In response, the forces responded with live fire in order to neutralise the danger."
Ramen Abu Izneid is a student of Al-Quds University in the West Bank. (ABC News: Haidarr Jones)
Locals have said they believed the police were using so-called "dum dum" bullets – which expand and sometimes splinter on impact.
When asked whether Border Police was aware Ms Abu Izneid was injured and whether an investigation would be launched, the spokesperson told the ABC that was a matter for the broader Israeli police to answer.
"In the Border Police, there are no such investigations," the spokesperson said.
The Israeli Police have not added to the comments.
Students 'feel nervous' following incident
The university's dean, Mazen Al-Khatib, says there had been no problems in the area before the incident. (ABC News: Haidarr Jones)
Ms Abu Izneid was initially taken to hospital in Ramallah, after delays in getting an ambulance to her apartment building.
Al-Quds University's Dean of Student Affairs, Mazen Al-Khatib was one of the first to see her, as he lived nearby.
"She's smart and clever and she's a good student," he said.
He said there had been few clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces since October 7.
"There is no clashes, no problem here on our side," Dr Al-Khatib said.
"All the students, they feel nervous at what's happened — they ask, 'What shall we do? We just want to study, we just want to live in peace, we just want to stay in our apartment, in our hostel.'
"You take a bullet when you are in your house, on the fourth level, it is not acceptable."
EDITOR'S NOTE: In an earlier version of this story, the building where Ms Abu Izneid had been living when she was hit was wrongly identified. The correct building was on the same street, but about 200 metres away from the scene of the reported altercation between a Jewish man and Palestinian onlookers.