Muhammed Ahmed Al Jabiry, 17, was sitting in his school bus, on his way to school Tuesday morning, when he was shot in the face by an Israeli soldier.
He remains in the hospital in critical condition — doctors don’t know whether Al Jabiry will live or die, but if he lives, his life will be changed forever.
The bus was bringing kids from their homes in Al Arroub Refugee Camp to Beit Amir High School was stopped by Israeli soldiers Tuesday morning for a search. The students were forced to get off the bus and searched one by one, a common occurrence in occupied Palestine, even for small children under the age of 10. Palestinian youth are used to being searched on a daily basis by Israeli soldiers, searches that, while humiliating and degrading, rarely turn deadly.
But Tuesday morning’s search of the Beit Amir school bus resulted in a boy being shot in the face. Soldiers claim that the boy opened a window, and when they ordered him to close it, he did not. So he was shot in the face by the soldiers at close range.
Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian student in the face after searching a school bus Tuesday morning.
The bus was traveling from Al Arroub Refugee Camp north of Hebron to Beit Amir High School.
According to eyewitnesses, Israeli forces at a checkpoint at the entrance of the Camp stopped the school bus and forced students to get off. The soldiers claimed that students had rocks and Molotov Cocktails.
Eyewitnesses said that after a brief search of the vehicles, soldiers allowed students to board the bus and ordered them to close the windows of the vehicle. As the students were doing so, a soldier shot 17 year old Ala’ Muhammad Ahmed Al Jabiry in the face.
An Israeli ambulance rushed to the scene and transported the youth to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
Israeli soldiers claim the Jabiry did not follow orders and opened the window rather than closing it.
