- On Friday a four-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead
by a soldier - the most recent child victim of the Israeli army. Chris
McGreal investigates a shocking series of deaths.
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- Nine-year-old Abdul Rahman Jadallah's promise to the
corpse of the shy little girl who lived up the street was, in all probability,
kept for him by an Israeli bullet. The boy - Rahman to his family - barely
knew Haneen Suliaman in life. But whenever there was a killing in the dense
Palestinian towns of southern Gaza he would race to the morgue to join
the throng around the mutilated victim. Then he would tag along with the
surging, angry funerals of those felled by rarely seen soldiers hovering
far above in helicopters or cocooned behind the thick concrete of their
pillboxes. Haneen, who was eight years old, had been shot twice in the
head by an Israeli soldier as she walked down the street in Khan Yunis
refugee camp with her mother, Lila Abu Selmi.
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- "Almost every day here the Israelis shoot at random,
so when you hear it you get inside as quickly as possible," says Mrs
Selmi. "Haneen went to the grocery store to buy some crisps. When
the shooting started, I came out to find her. She was coming down the street
and ran to me and hugged me, crying, 'Mother, mother'. Two bullets hit
her in the head, one straight after the other. She was still in my arms
and she died."
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- Later that day, the crowds pushed into the morgue at
the local hospital to see the young girl on the slab, partly in homage,
partly to vent their anger. Rahman pressed his way to the front so he could
touch Haneen. Then he went home and told his mother, Haniya Abed Atallah,
that he too wanted to die. "Rahman went to the morgue and kissed Haneen.
He came home and told us he had promised the dead girl he would die too.
I made him apologise to his father," Mrs Atallah says.
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- Weeks passed and another Israeli bullet shattered the
life of another young Palestinian girl. Huda Darwish was sitting at her
school desk when a cluster of shots ripped through the top of a tree outside
her classroom and buried themselves in the wall. But one ricocheted off
the window frame, smashed through the glass and lodged in the 12-year-old
girl's brain. Huda's teacher, Said Sinwar, was standing in front of the
blackboard. "It was a normal lesson when suddenly there was this shooting
without any warning. The children were terrified and trying to run. I was
shouting at them to get under their desks. Suddenly the bullet hit the
little girl and she slumped to the floor with a sigh, not even screaming,"
he says.
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- Sinwar dragged Huda from under her desk and ran with
her across the road to the hospital, itself scarred by Israeli bullets.
After weeks in hospital, she has started breathing for herself again, through
a windpipe cut into her throat. She has regained use of her arms and legs,
but will be blind for the rest of her life.
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- Rahman was in another class at the same school. The next
day, lessons were cancelled and the boy defied his mother to tag along
at the funeral of a slain Palestinian fighter. The burial evolved into
the ritual protest of children marching to the security fence that separates
Gaza's dense and beggared Khan Yunis refugee camp from the spacious religious
exclusivity of the neighbouring Jewish settlement. As Rahman hung a Palestinian
flag on the fence, a bullet caught him under his left eye. He died on the
spot. "It looks as if the soldiers saw him put the flag on the fence
and they shot him," says Rahman's brother, 19-year-old Ijaram. "There
were many kids next to him, next to the fence. But he was the only one
carrying the flag. Why else would they have shot him?"
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- Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, recently praised
the Israeli military as the most humanitarian in the world because it claims
to risk its soldiers' lives to avoid killing innocent Palestinians. It
is a belief echoed by most Israelis, who revere the army as an institution
of national salvation. Yet among the most shocking aspects of the past
three years of intifada that has no shortage of horrors - not least the
teenage suicide bombers revelling in mass murder - has been the killing
of children by the Israeli army.
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- The numbers are staggering; one in five Palestinian dead
is a child. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) says at least
408 Palestinian children have been killed since the beginning of the intifada
in September 2000. Nearly half were killed in the Gaza strip, and most
of those died in two refugee camps in the south, Khan Yunis and Rafah.
The PCHR says they were victims of "indiscriminate shooting, excessive
force, a shoot-to-kill policy and the deliberate targeting of children".
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- And children continue to die, even after the ceasefire
declared by Hamas and other groups at the end of June. On Friday, a soldier
at a West Bank checkpoint shot dead a four-year-old boy, Ghassan Kabaha,
and wounded his two young sisters after "accidentally" letting
loose at a car with a burst of machinegun fire from his armoured vehicle.
The rate of killing since the beginning of the ceasefire has dropped sharply,
but almost every day the army has continued to fire heavy machineguns into
Khan Yunis or Rafah. Among the latest victims of apparently indiscriminate
shooting were three teenagers and an eight-year-old, Yousef Abu Jaza, hit
in the knee when soldiers shot at a group of children playing football
in Khan Yunis.
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- The military says it is difficult to distinguish between
youths and men who might be Palestinian fighters, but the statistics show
that nearly a quarter of the children killed were under 12. Last year alone,
50 children under the age of eight were shot dead or blown up by the Israeli
army in Gaza: eight, one of whom was two months old, were slaughtered when
a one-tonne bomb was dropped on a block of flats to kill a lone Hamas leader,
Sheikh Salah Mustafa Shehada. But Rahman, Huda and Haneen were not "collateral
damage" in the assassination of Hamas "terrorists", or caught
in crossfire. There was no combat when they were shot. There was nothing
more than a single burst of fire, sometimes a single bullet, from an Israeli
soldier's gun.
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- It was the same when seven-year-old Ali Ghureiz was shot
in the head on the street outside his house in Rafah. And when Haneen Abu
Sitta, 12, was killed while walking home after school near the fence with
a Jewish settlement in southern Gaza. And when Nada Madhi, also 12, was
shot in the stomach and died as she leaned out of her bedroom window in
Rafah to watch the funeral procession for another child killed earlier.
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- The army offered a senior officer of its southern command
to discuss the shooting of these six children over a period of just 10
weeks earlier this year. The military told me I could not name him, even
though his identity is no secret to the Israeli public or his enemies;
it was this officer who explained to the nation how an army bulldozer came
to crush to death the young American peace activist, Rachel Corrie.
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- "I want you to know we are not a bunch of crazies
down here," he says. At his headquarters in the Gush Khatif Jewish
settlement in Gaza, the commander rattles through the army's version of
the shootings: either the military knew nothing of them, or the children
had been caught in crossfire - a justification used so frequently, and
so often disproved, that it is rarely believed. But three hours later,
after poring over maps and military logs, timings and regulations, he concedes
that his soldiers were responsible - even culpable - in several of the
killings.
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- The Israeli army's instinctive response is to muddy the
waters when confronted with a controversial killing. At first, it questioned
whether Huda was even shot. I described for the soldiers the scene in the
classroom with blood rippling up the wall behind the child's desk.
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- "I don't know how this happened," says the
commander. "I take responsibility for this. It could have been one
of ours. I think it probably was."
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- The killing of Haneen is clearer in the commander's mind.
"We checked it and we know that on the same day there was shooting
of a mortar," he says. "The troops from the post shot back at
the area where the mortar was launched, the area where the girl was killed.
We didn't see if we hit someone. I assume that a stray bullet hit Haneen.
Unfortunately." Doesn't he think that simply shooting back in the
general direction of a mortar attack is irresponsible at best? He says
not. "You cannot have soldiers sitting and doing nothing when they
are shot at," he says.
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- Haneen's mother, Mrs Selmi, believes her daughter was
shot from "the container". The metal box dangling from a crane
evokes more constant fear in Khan Yunis than the helicopter rocket attacks
and tank incursions. Nestled inside is an Israeli sniper shielded by camouflage
netting and hoisted high enough to see deep into the refugee camp. From
inside, it is striking how much the box moves around in the wind, leaving
little hope of an accurate shot. Peering from behind the camouflage, the
view is mostly of Palestinian houses riddled with bullet holes, a testament
to the scale of incoming Israeli fire. Haneen's home sits a few metres
from the security fence separating Khan Yunis from the Jewish settlement.
But, because the house is inhabited, the damage is mostly limited to the
upper floor, with 27 bulletholes around the windows. "In this area,
we shoot at the houses," says the Israeli commander. "We don't
want people on the second floor. I gave the order: shoot at the windows."
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- He may concede his soldiers are responsible for shooting
Huda and Haneen, but he denies their responsibility for the slaying of
Rahman, the nine-year-old shot while hanging the flag at the security fence.
"We saw the children, we saw them for sure. They always demonstrate
in this area after funerals. But I don't have any report from the troops
on our shooting on this occasion," he says. "We have rules of
engagement that we don't shoot children."
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- Seven-year-old Ali Ghureiz's father scoffs at the claim.
"They meant to kill him, for sure," says Talab Ghureiz. "I
can't imagine anyone who considers himself a human being can do this."
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- The killing of Ali and wounding of his five-year-old
brother is particularly disturbing because the commander admits there was
no combat and the boys were the focus of the soldier's attention. The Ghureiz
house lies on the very edge of Rafah. At the bottom of the street, an Israeli
armoured vehicle and guard posts sit in the midst of a "no-go"
area of tangled wire, broken buildings and mud. On the other side is the
Egyptian border. "There were three kids. They were playing 50m from
the house," says Ghureiz. "The Israelis fired two or three bullets,
maybe more. No one could have made a mistake. They were only 100m from
the children. I don't know why they did it. Ali was shot in the face immediately
below his left eye. It was a big bullet. It did a lot of damage,"
he whispers.
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- "This is the first I've heard of this," says
the commander. "According to the log, in the afternoon there were
children trying to cross the border. The tower fired five bullets and didn't
report any children hurt. Usually with children this age, we don't shoot.
There is a very strict rule of engagement about shooting at children. You
don't do it." But Ali is dead. "They [Palestinian fighters] send
children to the fence. An older guy, usually 25 or so, gives them the order
to go to the fence, or dig next to it. They know we don't shoot at children.
If one of my soldiers goes out to chase them away, a sniper will be waiting
for him."
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- Fences usually mark defined limits but, as with so much
in the occupied territories, the rules are deliberately vague. There is
an ill-defined ban on "approaching" the security fences separating
Gaza from Israel or the Jewish settlements. "We have a danger zone
100 to 200m from the fence around Gush Katif [settlement]. They [the Palestinians]
know where the danger zone is," the commander says. But many houses
in Rafah and Khan Yunis are within the "danger zone". Children
play in its shadow, and many adults fear walking to their own front doors.
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- "We have in our rules of engagement how to handle
this," the commander says. "During the day, if someone is inside
the zone without a weapon and not attempting to harm or with hostile intent,
then we do not shoot. If he has a weapon or hostile intent, you can shoot
to kill. If he doesn't have a weapon, you shoot 50m from him into something
solid that will stop the bullet, like a wall. You shoot twice in the air,
and if he continues to move then you are allowed to shoot him in the leg."
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- The regulations are drummed into every soldier, but there
is ample evidence that the army barely enforces them. The military's critics
say the vast majority of soldiers do not commit such crimes but those that
do are rarely called to account. The result is an atmosphere of impunity.
Israel's army chief-of-staff, Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, claims that
every shooting of a civilian is investigated. "Harming innocent civilians
is firstly a matter of morals and values, and we cannot permit ourselves
to let this happen. I deal with it personally," he told the Israeli
press. But Yaalon has not dealt personally with any of the killings of
the six children reported on here.
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- The army's indifferent handling of the shootings of civilians
has even drawn stinging criticism from a member of Ariel Sharon's Likud
party in the Israeli parliament, Michael Eitan. "I am not certain
that the responsible officials are aware of the fact that there are gross
violations of human rights in the field, despite army regulations,"
he said.
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- The case of Khalil al-Mughrabi is telling. The 11-year-old
was shot dead in Rafah by the Israeli army two years ago as he played football
with a group of friends near the security fence. One of Israel's most respected
human rights organisations, B'Tselem, wrote to the judge advocate general's
office, responsible for prosecuting soldiers, demanding an inquiry. Months
later, the office wrote back saying that Khalil was shot by soldiers who
acted with "restraint and control" to disperse a riot in the
area. However, the judge advocate general's office made the mistake of
attaching a copy of its own, supposedly secret, investigation which came
to a quite different conclusion - that the riot had been much earlier in
the day and the soldiers who shot the child should not have opened fire.
The report says a "serious deviation from obligatory norms of behaviour"
took place.
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- In the report, the chief military prosecutor, Colonel
Einat Ron, then spelled out alternative false scenarios that should be
offered to B'Tselem. B'Tselem said the internal report confirmed that the
army has a policy of covering up its crimes. "The message that the
judge advocate general's office transmits to soldiers is clear: soldiers
who violate the 'Open Fire Regulations', even if their breach results in
death, will not be investigated and will not be prosecuted."
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- Towards the end of the interview, the commander in Gaza
finally concedes that his soldiers were at fault to some degree or other
in the killing of most - but not all - of the children we discussed. They
include a 12-year-old girl, Haneen Abu Sitta, shot dead in Rafah as she
walked home from school near a security fence around one of the fortified
Jewish settlements. The army moved swiftly to cover it up. It leaked a
false story to more compliant parts of the Israeli media, claiming Haneen
was shot during a gun battle between troops and "terrorists"
in an area known for weapons smuggling across the border from Egypt. But
the army commander concedes that there was no battle. "Every name
of a child here, it makes me feel bad because it's the fault of my soldiers.
I need to learn and see the mistakes of my troops," he says. But by
the end of the interview, he is combative again. "I remember the Holocaust.
We have a choice, to fight the terrorists or to face being consumed by
the flames again," he says.
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- The Israeli army insists that interviews with its commanders
about controversial issues are off the record. Depending on what the officer
says, that bar is sometimes lifted. I ask to be able to name the commander
in Gaza. The army refuses. "He has admitted his soldiers were responsible
for at least some of those killings," says an army spokesman who sat
in on the interview. "In this day and age that raises the prospect
of war crimes, not here but if he travels abroad he could be arrested some
time in the future. Some people might think there is something wrong here."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1007051,00.html
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