12 year old underwent surgery after being shot in the head from close range in Bil'in demo

02/03/2007

Source : AATW

Over 600 demonstrators from all over the West Bank marched in Bil’in today, accompanied by Israelis and internationals. The DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) marked its 38th anniversary by joining the demonstration. The hundreds who came to participate charged the demonstration with new energies.

The army, however, presented nothing new, reacted to an extravagant spirit of liberty by even greater use of violence than normally. Twenty one demonstrators were injured in varying degrees of severity, including four that had to be hospitalized. One of them, twelve-year old Mahmoud Yusef Abu Rahme was shot in the forehead, suffered a broken skull and underwent a lifesaving operation in Sheikh Zaid hospital in Ramallah.

A rally celebrating the 38th anniversary of the left wing DFLP faction was held in the village, where hundreds from all over the West Bank gathered. After a long hour of speechifying, customary in such events, demonstrators started marching towards the wall, and were blocked by soldiers standing in front of the gate.

The soldiers immediately began pushing and shoving the demonstrators, which was answered by a barrage of stones so short that the demonstration managed to gather again in front of the gate a few seconds later.

It took no more than a few minutes for the soldiers to start pushing and hitting demonstrators with their batons. Wagee Burnat of Bil’in was injured above his eyebrow from a baton charge. Wagee’s injury was immediately followed by the use of teargas, which provoked stone throwing, and was followed by scores of rubber bullets and teargas projectiles being shot.

Ten minutes later, demonstrators who were pushed to a small hill on the side of the gate succeeded in regathering in front of the gate. While most protesters were centered around the gate, climbing it, trying to pass and chanting slogans, another group was standing in front of a line of soldiers a few meters into the village, trying to prevent them from shooting.

Then, at some point, 16-year old Fares Abu Ghosh said something to a soldier and walked away after the soldier had threatened to arrest him. As he was walking away, and with absolutely no apparent reason, the soldier shot him three times with rubber bullets in his hip and arms from about 10 meters. The boy’s father then ran towards the soldier, pushing and hitting him. This was used by the army as an excuse to start shooting at everything and everyone once more.

As soldiers were shooting indiscriminately, wounded demonstrators were brought to a makeshift infirmary. As the injured were being treated, whizzing bullets whistled by the paramedics. An elderly DFLP guy, a veteran of many years of struggle, who had been forced to exile during the first intifada, shouted to the soldiers: "You can shoot our bodies, but you could never kill our spirit".