Ramallah, May 23 (RHC)-- Israeli border police officers together with a number of passersby have violently beaten up a young Palestinian man outside a supermarket in Tel Aviv. 

Eyewitnesses, who shared accounts and video footage of the incident on social media, said the Palestinian youth was throwing garbage into a can outside the supermarket where he was working when two Israeli officers in plainclothes approached him and asked for his identity card and residency permit.

The Palestinian reportedly said his documents were inside the supermarket, but the Israeli forces started brutally punching and kicking him.  Erez Krispin, a witness, described the blows as “murderous” in a Facebook post, adding: “Teeth were flying through the air.  The Arab was torn apart.”

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the two plainclothes officers asked the Palestinian man for his ID before a brawl started and there was “pushing and shoving.”  Rosenfeld said two officers in uniform later arrived, adding that the other individuals seen attacking the Palestinian in the video had no connection with the police.

Israeli military forces and illegal settlers have frequently been caught on camera assaulting Palestinians.