A Palestinian has been critically wounded after Israeli troops shot him in the face in an overnight raid in the West Bank village of Ni'lin.

The military forces attacked the village where there has been a weekly demonstration against Israel's controversial separation barrier.

During the operation, 40-year-old Awad Srur was shot with four rubber-coated bullets, three of which struck him in the face, according to doctors treating him at a hospital in the nearby town of Ramallah.

Srur's brother told Ynet on Monday that "At first the troops shoved and dropped him, but he continued to say to them, 'Wait, wait.' They must have thought that he was irritated with them, so they decided to silence him".

Another neighbor added that "the shots fired at Awad, who is mentally ill, point blank, show that these soldiers and this army have lost any trace of humanism and specialize in the most serious crimes against the Palestinians."

The troops killed a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old in Nilin within a few days of each other in late July.

Nilin witnesses regular Israeli raids against people who protest the regime's separation barrier that will cut them off from hundreds of acres (hectares) of their farmlands.

SB/RA