Eight year old Akbar Zaid, killed Friday night by Israeli border police, was a victim of misconduct by the Israeli forces. Zaid is the latest in a spate of child killings by Israeli forces which have resulted in the deaths of 7 children so far this year.
Nearly 900 children have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the current open conflict in Septembet 2000.
The undercover Border Policemen who killed Akbar Zaid near Jenin on Friday night violated the rules of engagement, said the Israeli Army after an initial investigation of the incident.
According to the Israeli army report, the girl was killed after a Border Police unit entered the village of Al-Yaamoun, northwest of Jenin, to arrest three wanted Fatah and Islamic Jihad men. The Army’s report states that the policemen saw a taxi picking people up near a house in the village where they had been informed the wanted men were located, and thought the suspects were getting away, but after opening fire on the car, found out that the passengers were eight-year old Akbar and the members of her family.
The undercover policemen said that the taxi driver refused to stop when told to do so. They said they issued a warning and fired in the air, following standard arrest procedures, and fired at the taxi’s tires. The shots killed the girl and wounded the driver.
Palestinian witnesses, however, charged that the Israeli forces never issued any order, but simply opened fire on the girl and her family.
An Israeli Army spokesman said Sunday that shooting at a taxi’s tires is a clear violation of the rules of engagement in the territories in cases where troops are attempting to arrest a suspect, due to previous, similar instances in which Palestinian civilians, and occasionally Israelis, have been killed.
A more thorough investigation of the incident will be held Monday. The Border Police are awaiting the results of the Army inquiry before deciding whether to begin a Police Investigations Department probe.
updated from:
Israeli Troops kill 8-year old child near Jenin
2006-03-17 21:56:12
Friday evening, Israeli soldiers shot and killed an eight-year old child in the village of Al Yamoun, near the West Bank city of Jenin; another resident was moderately injured.
A Palestinian medical source in Jenin reported that Akaber Abdul-Rahman Zedan, 8, was shot dead after the soldiers fired with live ammunition at dozens of homes in the village; her body of the child was transferred to Khaleel Suleiman Hospital in Jenin.
The child who was killed by military fire was leaving her home adjacent to the surrounded home. She died of her wounds after the soldiers delayed an ambulance trying to evacuate her.
Also, an Israeli military spokesperson claimed that soldiers fired at a taxi after its driver failed to stop when ordered, and that the child was one of the passengers.
The family of the child, and eyewitnesses denied the military allegations and confirmed that the child was shot near her house.
Also, one resident identified as Kamal Taher Zayid, 27, was moderately injured by Israeli Special-Forces fire while they were surrounding a house in the town.
Soldiers fired at the surrounded house and around it; the injured resident was not in the house the force targeted.
An Israeli military source claimed that soldiers operated in Al Yamoun after receiving information that resistance fighters are hiding in one of the village’s houses.
