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Israeli Army Claims Palestinian Bullets May Have Killed Boy
by Judi Rever
TEL AVIV (AFP) - In a highly controversial report published Monday, the Israeli army said it was possible that Palestinian, rather than Israeli, bullets killed a 12-year-boy whose death became a graphic and haunting symbol of the Palestinian Intifada.
"A comprehensive investigation conducted in the last weeks casts serious doubt that the boy was hit by IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] fire," said the report into the September 30th shooting of Mohammed al-Durra in the Gaza Strip.
"It is quite plausible that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets in the course of the exchange of fire that took place in the area," the army said in a report presented to journalists by the army commander for the southern region that covers Gaza, General Yom Tov Samia.
Shortly after the killing, which occurred only days after eruption of violence across the Palestinian territories, the army said there was a high probability that Israeli gunfire had ended his life.
The army said Monday's report was based on a reenactment a month ago of the scene near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim near Gaza City and film footage taken at the time of the shooting by a television crew from France 2.
However, the army admitted that the bullet-riddled wall and concrete barricade where Mohammed and his father were trapped in the crossfire was "unintentionally destroyed" on October 7.
The disturbing film, which caused shock and horror when it was broadcast worldwide, showed Mohammed cowering with fear and crying behind his father, then being struck by bullets; and finally lying slumped across his wounded father's lap.
Israel's leading Haaretz newspaper earlier this month described the investigation as "dubious," raising questions about the reenactment which it said was initiated by two civilians with no ballistics expertise.
"Stupidity marches on," the Haaretz said in a damning editorial about the probe on November 10th. "It is hard to describe in mild terms the stupidity of this bizarre investigation."
"The fact that an organized body like the IDF, with its vast resources, undertook such an amateurish investigation, almost a pirate endeavor, on such a sensitive issue is shocking and worrying," it said.
Samia defended the latest army investigation.
"We investigated this because the Palestinians blame us for killing Mohammed al-Durra. We are not an army that kills kids just like this," he said.
About one third of the some 240 Palestinians killed during the two months of Israeli-Palestinian unrest have been children or youths under the age of 18, according to Palestinian Red Crescent figures.
The army report said that the investigation found that no automatic gunfire was fired directly at Mohammed and his father Jamal.
"The film footage shows that the father and son were hit by a volley of bullets. However the [Israeli] sharpshooter at Magen [the army post] was firing single shots only. According to soldiers interviewed, no automatic gunfire was used."
It also claimed that the father had said in an interview that Mohammed was probably shot in the back, which the army said backed up its assertions that Palestinian gunmen were shooting from behind the pair.
Charles Enderlin, director of the Jerusalem bureau of France 2, said however that their cameraman saw the shots coming from the Israeli position, and lashed out at army accusations that his television station had not cooperated.
"The army has accused us of not cooperating and of providing it with an edited copy [of the footage] which is entirely false," he told AFP.
"We also maintain what our cameraman said, which is that the shots came from the Israeli position."
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