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"I did not expect the `Eid gift to be a bullet by the Israelis," said the child's grieving father.
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RAMALLAH,
November 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The grieving
family of a 12-year-old Palestinian child, who died Saturday, November
5, of Israeli wounds, have donated his body parts to save the lives of
Israeli children.
"Despite
the pain, (the family) made a very courageous decision," Mostafa
Haboub, the uncle of slain Ahmed Al-Khatib, told the Israeli Television,
reported the Voice of America on its Web site.
"This
is part of our culture," he said.
"As
Muslims we can tell the world that we are not terrorists," added
the distressed uncle.
Khatib
was shot by Israeli occupation forces on Thursday, the first day of `Eid
Al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in
the northern West Bank town of Jenin.
He
was taken to hospital in northern Israel with serious head and stomach
wounds and breathed his last Saturday.
Following
an initial inquiry, the Israeli army said soldiers mistook the toy gun
the boy was brandishing for the real thing. Only later did they discover
the weapon was plastic.
Khatib's
death brings to 4,877 the number of people killed since the start of
Al-Aqsa Intifada, mostly Palestinians.
`Eid
Gift
"I
did not expect the `Eid gift to be a bullet by the Israelis," the
child's grieving father, Ismail, told the Palestinian news agency
(WAFA), fighting back his tears.
He
refuted the Israeli claim that the child carried a toy gun, asserting
his son carried no toys.
"He
has not bought any toy yet before his killing," said the father,
adding he found all the money his son got in his pocket.
"The
Israeli soldiers shot my son in the waste, he fall on the ground, when
he tried to stand again, they shot him in the head," Ismail said.
He
accused the Israeli forces of perpetrating a war crime, appealing for
the Israeli Knesset and rights advocates to unravel the truth in his
son's murder case.
Ismail,
nonetheless, decided to donate his slain son's heart, lung, kidneys and
liver to save Jewish lives, said the Voice of America.
"Israeli
children are our children…We are doing this because we believe in
peace."
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