It has been described as smelling like “a chunk of rotting corpse from a stagnant sewer” placed in a blender.

It is the foul-smelling liquid the “skunk” truck, one of Israel’s weapons of occupation and oppression, routinely sprays at Palestinians.

One of these skunk trucks can be seen in the video above spraying a jet of the disgusting liquid in eastern occupied Jerusalem on Saturday.

“Apart from the repulsive nausea-inducing stench, the skunk liquid can cause pain and redness if it comes into contact with eyes, irritation if it comes into contact with skin and if swallowed can cause abdominal pain requiring medical treatment,” according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

The children who evidently shot the video and can be heard talking are lamenting that the truck seems to be heading in the direction of their house.

They reassure each other that the windows of their house are closed.

But then something extraordinary happens. The truck tumbles off the road down a vertical ravine to the cheers and delight of the people of the neighborhood and the children making the film.

[Elsewhere described as "skunk"] Acc to @TheFrimer

Police water truck fell off road during Palest protests E Jlem pic.twitter.com/uROC5gUEWz — Marian Houk (@Marianhouk) August 31, 2014

The video has circulated widely on social media and was posted earlier today on the Facebook page of Quds News Network.

Wattan TV reported that the skunk truck was deployed after youths went into the streets of the al-Tur neighborhood to protest ongoing detentions by occupation police.

Israeli occupation forces detained almost 600 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in August, mostly in eastern occupied Jerusalem and Hebron, a crackdown carried out while much attention has been focused on Israel’s attack on Gaza.

The US State Department has accused Israeli occupation forces of “singling out” members of the Abu Khudair family for harassment and arrest.

Indiscriminate use of “skunk”

As can be seen in the video, the skunk truck appears to be spraying a jet of its foul liquid over a wide area and at houses, an act that can have no effect other than to further provoke and aggravate the Palestinian victims of the Israeli occupation.

On 26 August, the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, a local Jerusalem news agency, reported that Israeli occupation forces had severely escalated their use of skunk trucks over the last two months.

Jerusalemites complained about the routine and indiscriminate spraying of the foul liquid at their homes, cars and businesses and said that the occupation has done this with increasing frequency since the 2 July kidnapping and murder by Israeli settlers of the Jerusalemite teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair.

On 10 August, ACRI said it had contacted the commander of Jerusalem’s occupation police “to request that he urgently clarify the details” of Israel’s use of the substance.

“Witness testimony reveals that the police indiscriminately sprayed the skunk liquid towards houses, people, restaurants brimming with people and in crowded streets, causing harm to innocent residents,” ACRI said. “Evidence suggests that in some cases the skunk repellent was arbitrarily used with no apparent justification and in the absence of any public disturbances.”

It’s no wonder Palestinians were so delighted to see at least one Israeli skunk truck put out of action.