Border Guard officer in Naalin Photo: AP
Israelis wound 9 Palestinians at boy’s funeral
RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 30 (Reuters) – Israeli troops wounded nine Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in a clash with stone-throwing protesters at the funeral of a 10-year-old boy killed a day earlier, Palestinian medics said.
They said the Israelis had shot the protesters with rubber bullets. A 21-year-old Palestinian was hit in the head and doctors described him as brain dead.
The governor of Ramallah, Said Abu Ali, said an autopsy on the boy killed on Tuesday near the West Bank village of Nilin showed he had been shot in the head by live fire.
“There was a big hole in his head and we couldn’t save his life,” said Salah Khawaja, a 39-year-old medic who was at the scene. He said the boy had been shot at close range.
Demonstrators gather almost daily at Nilin to protest against the construction of Israel’s barrier in the West Bank.
One demonstrator,Mohammed Nafi, 32, said the protest had begun peacefully, with several boys watching as Israeli bulldozers cleared land for the barrier.
“After the bulldozers finished their work, a military jeep belonging the border police pulled over and one soldier knelt down and aimed his rifle at us and shot at us.
“Then Ahmed (the boy) fell down and blood was pouring out of his head,” Nafi said, adding that the boy had been standing about 100 metres (yards) from the jeep when the rifle was fired.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenberg said an investigation was under way, but had reached no conclusions. He said protesters had been throwing stones and Israeli border police had fired teargas and rubber bullets.
Israel says the barrier it is building, much of it on West Bank land, is needed to prevent suicide bombings. Palestinians denounce the network of walls and fences as a land grab cutting deep into the territory they seek for an independent state. (Reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Soldiers Use Tear Gas and Sound Bombs at Ahmed’s Funeral
When the convoy reached the Ni’lin, there were dozens of soldiers and border police waiting on either side of the entrance to the village. Instead of showing a single thread of human decency, they surrounded the funeral procession, knowing that their presence would provoke a reaction and ensure that Ahmed would not be allowed to die in peace as he had not been allowed to live in peace.
As soon as the first stones were thrown, the soldiers fired tear gas and sound bombs directly into the funeral procession, not stopping as people fell and became trampled in the scramble to escape.
Why did the soldiers have to come to Ni’lin today? Could they not have left the area just for one hour or even stood 100 metres further back and just let it be? Could they not have let Ahmed’s family and friends mourn without lining up as if to goad them and gloat that they had murdered him? I simply cannot understand what I see here.
brian said,
July 31, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Would be an idea to report this to israel supporters like Obama and australian PM Kevin Rudd.
Crescent and Cross » Blog Archive » News You Need For August 1, 2008 said,
August 1, 2008 at 6:28 pm
[...] FUNERAL FOR PALESTINIAN CHILD TURNS INTO SHOOTING SPREE [...]