JERUSALEM — The Israeli army has opened a probe into an incident in the West Bank during which an officer struck a demonstrator in the face with his gun, a military spokeswoman said on Sunday.

“This is a very serious incident. A detailed investigation has been opened into the circumstances leading up to this incident as well as on its repercussions,” she told AFP.

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Israel’s Channel 10 television earlier ran footage of Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Eisner striking the demonstrator in the face with his automatic weapon near a checkpoint in Al-Awja, north of the city of Jericho.

The demonstrator, a foreigner whose nationality was not given, was taking part in a bicycle rally with dozens of Palestinians and foreign activists in the Jordan Valley.

Channel 10, quoting a military source, said the officer apparently lost his patience as he and his troops tried to turn back cyclists shouting anti-Israeli slogans and waving Palestinian flags from a closed “military zone.”

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This video is from LIKMA38, uploaded to Youtube April 15, 2012.