Palestinian Arabs hurl rocks at security forces in the West Bank. Photo: wiki commons.

A routine Israel Defense Forces patrol in Hebron turned violent on Thursday when a six-man IDF unit found itself surrounded, cornered, and threatened in Hebron’s market area.

According to various reports of the incident, Palestinian Authority policemen confronted troops from the Nahal Infantry Brigade’s Battalion 931 in Hebron and told them that their patrol could not enter the market.

The soldiers ignored the policemen’s demand and attempted to go on with their patrol as usual, but what started as a conversation quickly degraded into a scuffle by both sides when the PA police would not let the Israelis pass.

The event hit a turning point when a soldier, attempting to arrest one of the Palestinian policeman, was punched in the head. Some 250 Palestinians began converging on the location of the scuffle and threw stones at the IDF unit.

It is not clear if and when the cornered troops called for reinforcements, but according to the events seen in the video, the soldiers extricated themselves by firing tear gas canisters, stun grenades, and rubber bullets at the mob.