Hussam, as shown in Israeli media at Hawara checkpoint

NABLUS, March 29 (IslamOnline.net) - Israeli media has embarked on a new stage of distorting the Palestinian resistance image, accusing Palestinian resistance fighters of making use of children and minors to execute bombing operations; a matter categorically denied by Palestinian families and factions as being "an Israeli intelligence fabrication."

Quds Press News Agency has unveiled Sunday, March 28, that Israeli media has lately been making up “perfect stories” about Palestinian children, who have been allegedly sent to blow up themselves, and their entrapped school bags.

The news agency declared that a number of Palestinian analysts and concerned bodies in Nablus have been astonished at the call made by resistance fighters to explode themselves.

"Israeli circles stress that there are large numbers of Palestinian youths who impatiently wait their turn to execute such martyrdom operations against occupation targets… How are the youth and children made use of in such a way?" They wondered, according to Israeli media.

Responsible sources in Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades, an offshoot of Fatah Movement, as well as some eyewitnesses underlined that, "arresting Hussam Abdu, 16, is a new fabrication of the Israeli intelligence."

They reiterated that the aim is to "send a horrible message to the world to the effect that Palestinians urge their children to kill themselves, in order to negatively affect the Palestinian morale and weaken the world support to the Palestinian cause."

On Sunday, March 28, Gideon Levy, columnist for Israel’s mass circulation daily Ha’aretz – commenting on Hussam story -  slammed “the cheap attempt to win points on the international public relations front from the picture of the child” as “ridiculous”, stressing “the world knows that Israel's hands are not clean, that they are stained with the blood of children”.

Different Israeli media have largely focused on displaying several photos of the arrest process of Hussam last week on the Israeli Hawara checkpoint, east of Nablus. Such photos have shown the child wearing explosive belt.

Repeated Victims

Hussam was not the first or only victim of such Israeli methods. The incident was repeated with other children like Abdullah Qaraan from Balata refuge camp, who, the Israelis claimed, transported an amount of explosives across Hawara checkpoint two weeks ago.

Hussam's brother said that he is "totally convinced that his brother was a victim of a dirty game orchestrated by the Israeli intelligence," adding that his brother has been suffering from unstable psychic condition.

"An intelligence agent may have convinced my brother to wear a false belt with the aim to make use of such farce for the sake of the Hebrew state."

"I headed towards Hawara checkpoint to work there as I do every day. A small bus arrived and two passengers asked us to carry two bags to the other side of the checkpoint and paid us 15 Shekels," Qaraan said.

"We knew nothing about the contents of the bag. I carried them, while my friend went home. When I arrived to the checkpoint, a soldier asked me about the content of the bags. I told him that I don't know. A female soldier ordered me to open them. Inside, there were spare parts, not explosives as they claim," the child added.

On March 20, occupation soldiers captured Ahmed Abu Makhia, 6, from Hebron, on his way back from school and put some explosives in his school bag and took some shots to convince the world public opinion that the boy carried bombs.

"Ahmed returned home in a very bad condition. When he told me the story, I reported it to the Palestinian liaison officer, the governorate and a human rights organization," the child's mother said.

Advance Arrangements

"Supporting the hypothesis of fabrication is the fact that the occupation soldiers usually prevent reporters from staying at checkpoints for long. Yet, an Israeli officer requested that reporters remain that day to shoot. Furthermore, remarkable numbers of Israeli reporters were available before the arrival of the boy," eyewitnesses told Quds Press.

Eyewitnesses added that soldiers were keen on urging foreign reporters to focus on the thrilling fabricated "story".

Eyewitnesses present near checkpoints reiterated that Hussam arrived wearing a remarkable red coat; a fact that reveals that those who sent him were keen that the boy be distinguished in his clothes to be easily seen.

Eyewitnesses pointed out that "soldiers have called the boy by his name," indicating that they knew him prior to that incident.

"Not Our Morals"

On its part, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Fatah Movement, categorically denied sending Hussam, stressing that the incident is a mere "Israeli fabrication that aim to do harm to the Palestinian people."

"The Brigades know nothing about this boy," a prominent official of the Brigades in Balata camp told Quds Press, pointing out that he was not astonished that the Israeli intelligence was responsible for this fabrication, according to him.

"The aim is to post such photos in order to submit evidence of the inhumanity of Palestinians in front of the world public opinion, as they send their own children to cruel fate, with the hope of weakening the world support to the Palestinian struggle," he added.