Israeli officer, soldier charged in rubber bullet shooting

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Israeli military Thursday charged a commander and a soldier in an incident in which a rubber bullet was fired at a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee at close range.

The Palestinian suffered a minor injury.

The Israel Defense Forces said the commander, Lt. Col. Omri Borberg, and the soldier -- identified only as Staff Sgt. L -- were charged with "unworthy conduct" in military court on Thursday.

Borberg was also re-assigned after superiors concluded the incident "presents a moral failure of command that should not have happened," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement late Wednesday.

Both will be tried "in the near future" in military court, the IDF said.

During a recent military hearing, Borberg said he did not intend for the soldier to open fire, but only for him to "carry out an act of deterrence," the military said in a statement.

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem released a videotape of the July 7 incident that shows shows a Palestinian man, handcuffed and blindfolded, flinching after a soldier fires a gun at him.

It called for a criminal investigation into the conduct of a brigade commander whom it says "whitewashed" the incident.

The Palestinian in the video is 27-year-old Ashraf Abu Rahma, a demonstrator who was protesting on July 7 in Nil'in, a West Bank village near Ramallah, according to B'Tselem.

Both the Israel Defense Forces and B'Tselem said his toe was wounded and that he was treated by an IDF doctor before being sent home. The Israeli military said he "had been arrested for taking part in a violent riot."

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