Israeli Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Palestinian Children
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
In Occupied Palestine, defenseless young children are considered a threat to heavily armed Israeli soldiers – authorized to shoot them with impunity.
Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) documented the worst abuses against Palestinian children in 2017.
They include Israeli military and police brutality, highlighted by the killing of 15 Palestinian children last year, including 9-year-old Mohammad Abu Hdaf, succumbing to serious injuries from an IDF drone strike during summer 2014 Israeli naked aggression on Gaza.
DCIP said the following:
“Israeli forces routinely employ the use of excessive force and intentional lethal force in situations not justified by international norms, which in some incidents may amount to extrajudicial or willful killings,” adding:
“International law requires that intentional lethal force be used only when absolutely unavoidable where there is a threat to life or serious injury.”
“Where individuals allegedly carry out a criminal act, they should be apprehended in accordance with international law and afforded due process of law.”
Not in Occupied Palestine. In 2017, DCI-P documented dozens of Palestinian children killed or injured by IDF live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, and other so-called crowd control methods alone.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported nearly 1,000 Palestinian children injured by Israel security forces last year – shocking crimes ignored by the world community and Western media scoundrels, especially US ones.
In January 2018, a three-year-old Palestinian infant miraculously survived an IDF live fire wound to the head, inflicted during a West Bank training exercise.
When ongoing, families are ordered to leave their communities. Unexploded ordnance left behind when exercises are concluded at times cause injuries or deaths to children unaware of the danger these munitions pose.
Last December, an Israeli soldier shot Ahed Tamimi’s 15-year-old brother Mohammad in the face at close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Embedded in his skull, it caused severe bleeding in his brain.
A portion of his skull was surgically removed to save him, two operations required. Reconstructive surgery is needed.
Israel despicably lied claiming the injury was caused by falling off his bike. Eye witnesses debunked the Big Lie. Before surgery, a CT scan showed the bullet lodged in his skull.
Israel repeatedly uses excessive force against defenseless Palestinians, young children as vulnerable as adults.
According to retired Israeli General Zvika Fogel, any Palestinian (adult, youth or child, male or female) “who gets close to the (Gaza border) fence, anyone who could be a future threat to the border of the State of Israel and its residents, should bear a price for that violation,” adding:
A “child or anyone else (can) hide an explosive device or check if there are any dead zones…or cut the fence” to enter Israel. The penalty for trying is “death.”
“I know how a sniper does the shooting. I know how many authorizations he needs before he receives an authorization to open fire.”
“It is not the whim of one or the other sniper who identifies the small body of a child now and decides he’ll shoot.”
“Someone marks the target for him very well and tells him exactly why one has to shoot and what the threat is from that individual.”
Since Good Friday, over 40 Gazans were lethally shot, thousands of others wounded, over 1,600 from live fire, many victims sustaining disabling injuries.
Most demonstrators shot were several hundred meters from the border fence, posing no threat to Israeli security.
Israeli soldiers use live fire freely, including against young children, farmers in their fields, fishermen at sea, anyone for the “crime” of being Palestinian.
Mahmoud Ibrahim Ayoub, aged-14, was one of many Gazan casualties. Hundreds of meters from the Israeli border, posing no threat to anyone, he was lethally shoot in the head by an Israeli soldier, pronounced dead shortly after the incident.
Throughout its history, Israel brutalized Palestinians unaccountably, shielded by the international community, notably Washington.
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