Palestinian boy, 14, loses eye after being hit by Israeli rubber bullet
By Akram Al-Waara in Hebron, Occupied West Bank
Middleeasteye , 14 Apr 2021 06:30
Islam Times- Rights groups have long condemned Israel's use of steel-coated rubber bullets, which have repeatedly killed and wounded Palestinians.
It was a typical Friday afternoon for 14-year-old Izz al-Din al-Batsh. Friday prayers were finished and he was done with his homework for the weekend. As he normally did on non-school days, he left his home in the Old City of Hebron, an occupied city in the southern West Bank, and made his way to the vegetable shop where he worked with his cousin Karim.
The store sits just outside the Old City, in the Bab al-Zawiya neighbourhood, one of Hebron’s flashpoints. It is also the site of near-weekly confrontations between local Palestinian youths and armed Israeli soldiers, who are permanently stationed at a military checkpoint in the area.
Typical of most Fridays, clashes ensued after prayers. Israeli forces fired tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets at small crowds of young Palestinians, who threw stones at the armed soldiers.
Izz al-Din and Karim watched, several metres away, from what they believed to be the safety of the shop.
“We could see the soldiers not too far away from us, and there were some other kids around also watching the clashes,” Izz al-Din told Middle East Eye from his bed. From what he could make out, the soldiers were firing tear gas and sound bombs.
“We were just watching the clashes and all of a sudden I felt something hit me in the face,” he said. He fell to the ground as the pain bit into the area around his right eye.
The moments after he fell to the ground are a blur.
Izz al-Din was rushed to a local hospital by other bystanders. Emergency room doctors and nurses gave him first aid.
When he eventually came to, doctors told Izz al-Din that he had sustained a serious wound from a rubber-coated steel bullet, and would likely completely lose his right eye.
A video of a confused Izz al-Din, his eye and head covered in bloody bandages, crying as he lay in the hospital next to his father, went viral on social media over the weekend, as Palestinians from across the West Bank lamented the teen’s plight.
“I can’t describe the feeling, as a father, of seeing your child like that,” Nidal al-Batsh, Izz al-Din’s father told MEE on the roof of his house. “It’s absolutely devastating.”
'I wouldn’t wish this upon my worst enemy.' Nidal al-Batsh, Izz al-Din's father, is calling for the Israeli soldiers involved to be held accountable (MEE/Akram al-Waara)
“I think that even if it wasn't my son, but I saw that video of Izz al-Din in that state, I would have broken down as well,” he said, referring to the outpouring of grief and support his family has received in the wake of the video.
“It’s devastating, just on a human level,” Batsh continued. “It’s horrible for anyone, old or young, to suffer an injury like this one - but especially for a young child like Izz al-Din.”
A deadly weapon
Following the news of Izz al-Din’s injury, a number of media outlets quoted his cousin Karim as saying that the soldiers fired directly towards the boys, speculating that the boy could have been wrongfully targeted by the soldiers.
The Israeli army reportedly opened a division-level investigation into the incident, after which the division's commander concluded that the soldiers had not fired directly at the shop, according to the Times of Israel.
According to the paper, the Israeli forces’ unit in charge of investigations into wrongdoing and negligence, the military police, had not opened up their own investigation.
“There was a violent protest, including stone-throwing and stone-slinging, and the military responded with riot dispersal mechanisms, including rubber bullets,” an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement published by Israeli media.
The spokesperson claimed that it is possible that Izz al-Din was wounded by a ricocheted rubber bullet or rocks thrown by protesters.
Izz al-Din’s family maintains that the confrontations were taking place down the street from the vegetable shop, and that the boys were not participating.
Those claims are backed up by the shop’s security camera footage. It shows Izz al-Din (on the right) and Karim (on the left) standing inside, watching the confrontations - which can’t be seen inside the frame - from a distance.
Karim can be seen ducking and pulling away before coming back up, at which point Izz al-Din peaks his head forward a tiny bit. At that moment, Karim can be seen dashing backwards, as Izz al-Din clutches his face and falls to the ground behind the crates of vegetables.
“The boys were clearly not participating in the clashes or stone-throwing,” Batsh told MEE. “But even if they were, is that an excuse to seriously injure or maim someone in the way that the soldiers did to Izz al-Din?”
“Whether he was shot on purpose or not, the reality is that he is a child, and he lost his eye as a result of the soldiers’ actions,” he added.
“Palestinians have been sustaining serious and life-threatening injuries as a result of things like rubber bullets and tear gas,” Batsh said, referring to what Israel calls “crowd dispersal measures”.
Story Code: 927191