Palestinian activist beaten by Israeli soldier tells CNN he is scared for his life

By Zeena Saifi, CNN

Palestinian activist Issa Amro, who was filmed being assaulted by an Israeli solder on Monday, told CNN he is
physically and psychologically affected by the attack and fears for his life.

“I am injured. I have pain in both my arms, my back and my leg and I am psychologically affected from this attack and
from the consequences of the attack – [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir supporting the soldier, the army
lying about what happened,” he told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade on Connect the World.

“Now I am afraid about my life and I’m afraid about the life of the people who are still living in the same area from any
kind of revenge from the Israeli soldiers,” he added.

Lawrence Wright, a writer for the New Yorker magazine who was with Amro at the time, posted video of the assault
on Twitter. It showed two IDF soldiers manhandling the well-known activist, throwing him onto the ground, and one
soldier kicking him, before that soldier is pushed away by other troops.

In response to CNN’s interview with Amro, Israel Defense Forces international spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht
said there was “no justification” for the soldier’s behavior, but suggested Amro had provoked the incident.

"There was no justification whatsoever for the soldier’s behavior. It was handled swiftly and aggressively by Gen.
Yehuda Fuchs, the Central Command general.

“But I know Issa Amro from my time as a battalion commander – and again, I am saying there is no justification for it
– but he is a provocateur. He provokes soldiers all the time, looking for a young 19-year-old solider to make that kind
of mistake, and sadly it happened. And we took care of it,” Hecht said.

Hecht said he had tried to contact Amro to discuss the incident, and shared a screenshot of a message to the activist
dated Monday.

“We reached out with him to try to dialogue with him, me personally, like we did with Lawrence Wright, who met us.
And we said what we needed to say,” Hecht said.

The Israeli soldier who was filmed assaulting Amro in Hebron was sentenced to 10 days in military jail.