Israel Defense Forces reservists were videotaped yesterday hitting and punching Israeli protesters in the southern Hebron Hills yesterday.

One of the officers, an infantry commander in the reserves, was documented violently pushing the barrel of his rifle into the chest of one of the demonstrators, who collapsed onto the ground.

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The violence broke out when the reservists attempted to keep an anarchist group from blocking traffic on the main road in the area - Route 60, near the West Bank settlement of Otniel.

Beforehand, the protesters had dismantled the Samua roadblock on a nearby dirt road that connects the Palestinian town of Dahariyeh to Route 60. There is another road leading to the town, which is open to traffic and is monitored by the IDF.

The video, which was sent to Israeli television stations, showed the reservists attempting to push the black-clad protesters to the side of the road. Several reservists were seen beating some of the women protesters.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz told IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi yesterday that the footage appeared to indicate serious misconduct, and called on protesters on both the right and the left to operate within the law.

The military prosecutor ordered an investigation into the incident, a move supported by the IDF and Peretz. Military sources called the images of the violence "embarrassing" and deemed the behavior of the rifle-wielding officer unacceptable.

They said they expected the IDF Central Command to examine the incident in the next few days.

However, a security officer in the region said the clash was not as one-sided as it appeared.

"This is a group of anarchists who frequently clash with security forces and create repeated provocations," he said.

"They came to the area with cameras [and] taunted the soldiers in order to create a disturbance, but none of that is seen on tape."