WAR.WIRE
Israel firing bean bags to disperse protestors: report
JERUSALEM (AFP) Oct 23, 2005
The Israeli security forces have begun to fire tightly packed mini-bean bags at protestors demonstrating against the separation barrier being built in the West Bank, the army said Sunday.

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.