The Haaretz newspaper quoted demonstrators who had been injured in protests against the barrier in the village of Bilin as saying that they had been hit by a sack packed with tiny balls. A picture of the sack was printed in the paper.

While the bean bags were designed as a non-lethal means of dispersal, the paper said they could prove fatal if fired from a distance of less than three metres (yards).

An army spokesman described the sacks as a "weapon for dismantling riots" and said that their use had "been approved by all relevant officials."

Previously the security forces had relied on tear gas canisters, rubber-coated bullets and percussion grenades to break up protests.