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An
Israeli tank shot dead a child for breaking the curfew
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RAMALLAH,
West Bank, September 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A
10-year-old Palestinian child was shot dead Thursday, September 19, by
an Israeli armored vehicle which opened fire on him with a heavy
machine-gun in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the head of the
hospital here said.
The
child was named as Absalam Sumrin by Ramallah hospital director Hosni
Atari, who said he had been shot through the chest by a heavy
machine-gun bullet fired by a tank, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
Palestinian
police said there were no clashes reported in the area at the time,
and said witnesses had said it was an armored personnel carrier which
fired on the child.
The
police said an Israeli army curfew was in place at the time, but said
there appeared to be no other motive for the shooting.
Witnesses
said the boy had been sent out by his father to buy cigarettes despite
the curfew, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are living under
Israel’s reoccupation of West Bank cities for three months.
A
military spokesman declined immediate comment.
The
Israeli occupation army invaded the main West Bank cities on June 19
and since then the living conditions in the occupied Palestinian
territories have been deteriorating to the point that international
organizations have been warning of a humanitarian crisis.
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Portrait of ten-year-old Abed Al Salam Hamayel handed out by his family in the West Bank City of Ramallah, September 19, 2002
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The
latest death brings the number of people killed since the start of the
two-year-old Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation, to
2,502 including 1,845 Palestinians and 607 Israelis, the remainder
being foreign nationals.
Meanwhile,
in occupied Jerusalem, the Israeli army early Thursday razed to the
ground the homes of two Palestinians they claim are bombers in Abu Dis
in the suburbs of east Jerusalem.
Bulldozers
guarded by soldiers demolished the family homes of Nabil Halbia and
Usama Bahar after the Israeli supreme court rejected appeals by their
families against the destruction, AFP said.
Halbia
and Bahar killed 11 Israelis on December 1 last year in a resistance
attack in occupied Jerusalem.
The
Israeli army has demolished some 40 houses since the beginning of
August as part of retaliatory measures and “dissuasion” against
attacks.
This
action has come under attack from human rights organizations which
they see as a form of collective punishment.
