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Deadly Week for Palestinian Children
Posted: Wednesday, September 25, 2002

by David Bloom, www.indymedia.org.il

An explosion at the Ziff junction primary school in the West Bank village of Yatta, near Hebron, injured five 8-year-old Palestinian children on Sept. 17. The large bomb exploded by a water cooler. Police sappers disarmed a second bomb. No one claimed responsibility, but the Shin Bet security service and police suspect Jewish extremists. A police investigation found Jewish extremists to be involved in a similar attack at an Arab school in east Jerusalem in March and a foiled attempt April 29. (Reuters, Sept. 18; Ha'aretz, Sept. 18) (See WW3 REPORTS #s 28, 33) An editorial in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz said of the perpetrators: "So blindly evil is the fire of vengeance that burns in these Jews that they seek the lives of children where they can be found in the greatest quantity--while they are studying." Ha'aretz further states: "In light of the impressive successes of the security services in foiling Palestinian terror attacks over the last two years, the failure of the Shin Bet's Jewish department demands a more convincing explanation than those that have so far been offered." (Ha'aretz, Sept. 19)

Several Palestinian youngsters were killed last week. 15-year old Mohammed Abed-Razzaq used to salvage pieces of aluminum to sell to metal workshops, a common activity for children in the Tulkarem refugee camp. According to his family, he found a large metallic object on his way back from school Sept. 17, and brought it home with him. His mother said he was happy because it was a large piece, which would fetch a good price when he took it apart and removed its aluminum parts. While disassembling the object on the family's roof, it exploded, killing him. The object is believed to have been a mine left behind by the IDF. (Palestine Monitor, Sept. 18)

Three Palestinian children were wounded by fire from Israeli forces at the refugee camp of Askar near Nablus Sept. 17. Palestinian medical sources said they were targeted for throwing stones at the IDF. Local residents said Israeli tanks opened fire on a group of children playing in one of the streets of the camp. (Xinhua, Sept. 18)

Abdel Salam Samreen, a 12-year old boy from Ramallah, was sent to a shop by his father to buy cigarettes on Sept. 19, breaking an Israeli-imposed curfew. A witness reports boys had been throwing stones at an Israeli tank driving up the road. Abdel Salam left his house without noticing the other boys or the stone throwing. When he saw the tank, "He ran and tried to hide behind a wall, and they [the soldiers] started shooting at him," said the witness, Amar Samir. Samreen was shot six times in the chest, and died. The army said they'd look into it. Palestine Monitor says his death brings to 342 the number of children killed in the last two years, 11 of them in the past two weeks. ( Palestine Monitor, Sept. 19; The Scotsman, Sept. 20)

Four children, aged 10 to 12, were injured by IDF gunfire near their clandestine school in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus on Sept. 19. The alternative education system, called the "Popular Education Program," was created by local Palestinian authorities and factions so children could go to school despite the curfew imposed since June 20. There are 38,000 pupils in the Nablus area. The local Palestinians say the shooting was aimed at preventing even these underground classes. (AFP, Sept. 19)

Nine-year-old Abdel Salam Sumerin was among a crowd of school children who defied curfew at El Amari refugee camp in El Bireh Sept. 19. The army used live fire to disperse the children, killing Sumerin. On Sept. 22, a Palestinian girl was wounded in Kafr Usserin near Nablus when residents defied a nearly two-month curfew and confronted Israeli troops. Xinhua wrote the IDF was "tightening its security curfew on the towns of Ramallah and Al Beereh and the troops are raiding houses there and opening fire at anything moving." (Xinhua, Sept. 19; Ha'aretz, Sept. 23)

On Sept. 23, Ewa Jasiewics, 24, of London, a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was observing IDF behavior as children in Nablus broke curfew to go to school. "An armored personnel car came and stopped on the left of the street," Jasiewics said. "A soldier popped up from inside. I saw him with his rifle and he aimed at some kids on the street. There was no stone-throwing or shooting going on at the time." In the last month, Jasiewics has witnessed soldiers train their guns on Palestinians without firing, but this time was different. "This soldier fired," she said. "I saw [13-year-old] Baha [Albahsh] lying on the ground, with blood coming out of his chest... I saw blood oozing from his mouth. We called an ambulance and the ambulance came and took him." Jasiewics said, "It wasn't accidental. The soldiers decided to kill him." There has been no official army comment on the incident, but Israeli sources, speaking anonymously, told AP an army patrol witnessed a child lighting a firebomb which set him on fire. The sources said there was no gunfire, and that soldiers saw the burned teen being taken away by ambulance. According to a doctor at Rafidia hospital in Nablus, Alhbahsh was killed by a bullet which entered his shoulder and lodged in his chest. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 23)

Baha was the ISM's guide in Nablus. "I do not think it was a random shot or a ricochet. The soldiers knew who he was. He had been with the volunteers since April," Jaseiwicz said. "I think it was from an M-16, not the heavy machinegun mounted on top. I felt the bullet near me. I looked around and saw Baha bleeding from the chest. Soon blood was bubbling from his mouth and he was dead within minutes." (UK Telegraph, Sept. 23)

Two volunteers with International Women's Peace Service (IWPS), Mariam Bhaba, a Canadian citizen, and Claire Peak, a British national living permanently in the US, as well as Joan Phelan, an Irish volunteer, quoted IDF troops in the West bank town of Hares who claimed they fired on children Sept. 19:

"When we reached the scene we saw one Israeli Army jeep and an Israeli police jeep stopped on the side of the road. We approached the soldiers and asked them why they were shooting live ammunition into a residential area. They replied that 'some children had thrown stones.' We asked them if they had felt that the 'alleged' throwing of stones had warranted their responding with live fire [only permissible under the Geneva Conventions as self defense against clear and immediate threat to life]. The soldiers now refused to say anything. It is worth pointing out that there was no sign of any stones in the area around them, nor was there any indication of any damage to their vehicle or themselves. There were however over 20 spent bullet casings lying on the road around their feet. We also asked the soldiers if they thought that they had hit anyone, and if anyone had gone out to check the area they had been firing into to see if there were any injured people. Again, they ignored us. We approached the policemen in the second vehicle, and asked one of them about the shooting. Shimon Dahan (this was the name later given to me) got out of the jeep denying that there had been any firing. When we showed him the spent casings at the feet of the soldiers he proceeded to collect up the casings and throw them away into the field by the side of the road. Mariam told him that he was destroying evidence. He became very angry and screamed, 'Yes, I'm destroying evidence, so what' in her face."

The volunteers' film of the incident was seized, they were arrested, strip searched, and coerced to agree to leave the West Bank and not return to Hares, under threat of imprisonment.

More reports here


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