17-year-old Rakan al-Nusairat was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers
Monday evening near Jericho checkpoint. According to eyewitnesses, the
boy had a plastic gun in his hand when he was shot.
Medical sources said that the Israeli army prevented ambulances from approaching al-Nusairat or offering first aid, and he was left to bleed to death.
Kids with toy guns are often shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. Two thirteen-year olds were killed last January, 12-year-old Mujahed Al Samadi was killed last year…and the numbers continue to add up.
Israeli soldiers, too, apparently enjoy playing with toy guns (though none have ever been shot for it). A report from the Tel Rumeida Project, a human rights organization located in Hebron, in the West Bank, gave this account last month: "On walking back through the Old City four soldiers were seen standing outside a children’s toyshop. On closer inspection another two soldiers were seen standing inside talking with the shop’s owner. After a few minutes they left. The shop owner indicated that the soldiers had been looking at toy guns and showed the Human Rights Worker an empty box from which a gun had been taken…[Later,] A Human Rights Worker on the H2 (Israeli controlled side under the Hebron Protocol) side of checkpoint 56 saw the soldiers returning from the patrol and carrying the toy gun. The soldiers were obviously very excited by this toy and pretended to fire at each other with it."
Almost exactly one year ago, 15-year old Ahmed Ismail Katib was shot while holding a toy gun. He died two days later in an Israeli hospital, and his family chose to donate his organs to Israeli children in need. Israeli legislator Mohamed Barakeh, who was with the family at the hospital, said at the time, “The family’s father said that he is interested in showing his humanity as opposed to the recklessness of the murderers. He knows that the organs will be donated to Israelis yet he doesn’t care. A kid is a kid. The father took a tough decision and I supported it from the beginning."
Ismail Khatib, the boy's father, said his decision to donate his son Ahmed's organs was rooted in his memories of his own brother, who died at 24 waiting for a liver transplant, and in his family's desire to help others, regardless of their nationality. "I don't mind seeing the organs in the body of an Israeli or a Palestinian. In our religion, God allows us to give organs to another person and it doesn't matter who the person is."
