Israel und Iran - Der Point of no Return rückt näher
31.03.2006 um 03:10
Children killed in demonstrations and as a result of reckless IDF fire
Duringthe first months of the intifada children were mostly killed during stone-throwingdemonstrations, though in many cases they appear to have been bystanders during thesedemonstrations.
Sami Fathi Abu Jazzar. On 10 October 2000 Amnesty Internationaldelegates witnessed the aftermath of a stone throwing demonstration in Rafah on thesouthern edge of the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers shot at a crowd of some 400 people,mostly primary schoolchildren, who were throwing stones at an Israeli military post. SamiFathi Abu Jazzar was shot in the head; a live bullet entered his forehead above his lefteyebrow, went through the skull diagonally and exited at the back of his head. He diedthe following day, on the eve of his 12th birthday. Six other children were injured bylive fire in the same incident. Amnesty International delegates, including an expert inriot policing, concluded that the lives of Israeli soldiers were not in danger and thattheir use of lethal force was unjustified, as their position was not only heavilyfortified, but there were also two wire fences between the post and the stone throwers,who were some 200 metres away.
Muhammad Ibrahim Hajaj, Ahmed Suleiman Abu Tayahand Ibrahim Reziq Omar, all 14 years of age, were shot dead and several other childrenwere wounded on 1 November 2000 by the IDF in the Gaza Strip, on the road betweenNetzarim junction and the Karni crossing into Israel, in a place which over the past twoyears has been a regular demonstration site for children who gather to throw stones atIDF tanks and/or at the IDF tower. Muhammad Ibrahim Hajaj was shot in the neck and AhmedSuleiman Abu Tayah and Ibrahim Reziq Omar were shot in the head and chest. All three diedimmediately. Several other children were wounded, including two 10-year-olds who wereshot in the abdomen and in the right shoulder. According to eyewitnesses and to medicalrecords, the children were fired on with live ammunition from a distance of about 150metres.
Fifteen-year-old Muhammad Musbah Isma’il Abu Ghali was shot in thechest from an IDF jeep at Tuffah checkpoint in Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, on theafternoon of 8 November 2000. Two UN staff members who were on their way back from theMawasi area witnessed the shooting. According to one of them: "There was a group ofchildren standing around the rubble of the demolished houses by the Tuffah checkpoint butthey were not throwing stones or demonstrating. Two IDF jeeps arrived and after a momenta soldier fired a single shot which hit Muhammad in the chest and he fell. I knew the boyand I approached him and he said 'My bicycle key is in my pocket'. I asked him if he wasOK and he didn't reply and pulled from his pocket the key, three photos and three shekelsand then slumped back. The ambulance arrived to take him to hospital and he died on theway."
Khalil Ibrahim al-Mughrabi. On 7 July 2001 three children were shot by IDFsniper fire as they were flying kites and playing soccer in an open space near the borderfence at Rafah. Khalil Ibrahim al-Mughrabi, age11, was killed by a high-velocity bulletin the head. Ibrahim Kamel Abu Sussain, age 10, and 13-year-old Suleiman Turki Abu Rijalwere also shot and both sustained serious injuries in the abdomen and in the testicles,respectively. The shots came from an IDF post about 800 metres away, and the boys were ina large, open space. According to testimonies given to Amnesty International by IbrahimKamel Abu Sussain and by other children who were present at the time of the incident,there were no disturbances or clashes in the area at that time. The IDF claimed thatthere had been rioting and throwing of fragmentation grenades in the area at the time,but confidential IDF records showed that this was untrue. On 8 November 2001, the IDFinformed the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem that it had decided not toinitiate an investigation of the incident because there was no suspicion of criminalbehaviour by the soldiers. However, a file was attached to the IDFs response, apparentlyin error, which contained internal records of the IDFs operational de-briefings and theopinions of the IDF Southern Command Judge Advocate and of the Chief Military Prosecutor.These documents, which have been made public by B'Tselem, show that the IDF, in spite ofthe evidence, decided not to order a Military Police investigation and cleared thesoldiers who killed Khalil al-Mughrabi and injured the two other children, and that inits response to B’Tselem the IDF deliberately presented an incorrect version of theincident.(8)
Children killed in attacks on residential areas and as bystandersduring Israeli state assassinations
Israel has pursued a policy ofextra-judicially executing Palestinians whom it accuses of having been involved inattacks on Israelis, instead of arresting them and bringing them to justice. Suchpractice is in breach of international standards. More than 20 children and 20 otherbystanders have been killed during these state assassinations, in a policy which has beenordered and approved at the highest level of the Israeli government, including by thePrime Minister, the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
On22 July 2002, just before midnight, the IDF dropped a one-ton bomb from an F-16 aeroplaneon a densely populated neighbourhood of Gaza city killing 17 people, including ninechildren, and wounding more than 70 others, many seriously. The children killed were:Ayman Raed Matar (18 months), Muhammad Raed Matar (three years), Diana Raed Matar (fiveyears), Subhi Mahmud al-Hweiti (four years), Muhammad Mahmud al-Hweiti (six years), DinaRami Matar (two months), Ala Muhammad Matar (10 years), Iman Salah Shehada (15 years),and Maryam Matar (17 years, seriously injured in the attack, she died on 15 August).
The attack destroyed the house of leading Hamas activist Salah Shehada, who was amongthose killed. Two other houses were completely destroyed, and four homes leftuninhabitable. The Israeli authorities accused Salah Shehada of having been responsiblefor organizing a number of suicide attacks. Given the location of the target, in adensely populated civilian area, and the method of attack selected, those responsible forplanning this attack must have known that civilians, including children, would be killedand wounded.
Six-year-old Ashraf Khader and his 11-year-old brother Bilal werekilled on 31 July 2001 when the IDF launched a rocket attack on an apartment building ina busy residential area in Nablus. The attack targeted and killed two Hamas leaders,Jamal Mansur and Jamal Salim, as well as four others; 15 people were wounded. Thechildren had been playing outside, waiting for their mother while she visited a clinic inthe same building.
On 10 December 2001, three-year-old Burhan al-Himuni13-year-old and Shadi Ahmad Arafe were killed in a failed Israeli assassination attempton a suspected Islamic Jihad activist. The target of the attack jumped clear of his carmoments before two missiles fired by the IDF from helicopter gunships slammed into a busyHebron intersection. Burhan al-Himuni and his father Muhammad were trapped inside thecar; the child was decapitated. The other child, Shadi 'Arafe, was travelling in a taxibehind the targeted car; the taxi and a third vehicle were destroyed.
By the endof 2000, although many children were still being killed in stone-throwing demonstrations,more killings were taking place during reckless shooting and shelling of civilianresidential areas. Shooting and shelling has been both unprovoked and in response toPalestinian gunfire, Molotov cocktails or other attacks. However, in responding to realor perceived Palestinian attacks, the IDF used reckless and disproportionate force,killing at least 80 Palestinian children and seriously injuring hundreds of others.
In certain areas of the Gaza Strip frequent IDF shooting and shelling of denselypopulated residential areas appear to have aimed at creating no-go areas between KhanYunis refugee camps and the Israeli settlement block of Gush Katif, and between Rafahrefugee camp and the IDF security fence along the Egyptian border and around the IDFbunker. Amnesty International delegates who visited these areas at regular intervals inthe past two years noticed the progressive expansion of these no-go-areas and witnessedthe IDFs reckless and unprovoked shooting into these areas and towards children andadults alike (including in the direction of Amnesty International delegates).
Hani Yusuf al-Sufi was killed on the morning of 20 December 2000. There had beenshooting in Rafah from Israeli positions and people took shelter in their houses. Ataround 9.45am, Hani Yusuf al-Sufi, aged 15, and five friends were standing in a narrowalley-way when a grenade hit the wall above their heads. His father told AmnestyInternational delegates: