Haaretz
Iyar 13, 5765
After two Palestinian boys were killed by
Israel Defense Forces fire in the West Bank town of Beit Lakia two weeks
ago, the army investigated and concluded that, due to the soldiers'
overenthusiasm, a routine incident had deteriorated into a series of
tragic mishaps that ended in the boys' death.
But Palestinian
eyewitnesses said Jamal Assi, 15, and his 14-year-old cousin, Uday Assi,
were caught in a deliberate IDF ambush.
Every day, Beit Lakia boys
come to play on a soccer field south of the town. According to the IDF,
some then proceed to a hill that overlooks a parking lot about 150 meters
away and use slingshots to throw stones at the bulldozers being used to
build the separation fence near Beit Lakia. In the past, the
stone-throwers have wounded an Israeli driver and broken the windshields
of several bulldozers.
On May 4, an IDF force came to guard the
lot, and the officer in charge, along with four of his soldiers, ascended
the hill in question. According to the IDF, the youths saw the soldiers
and fled, which is when the officer - who has since been suspended and is
under investigation by the military police - made his fatal mistake:
Instead of being satisfied with driving the boys away, he gave chase, all
the way to the outskirts of the town.
At that point, the IDF said,
the soldiers found themselves in trouble, surrounded by about 150
Palestinians, some of whom were throwing stones at them. Some of the
soldiers were hit by the stones and wounded, though not seriously. The
soldiers say they could not use tear gas, because the strong wind made it
impossible to control the direction of the gas. Instead, they fired rubber
bullets, but the crowd did not disperse. The force commander also fired in
the air.
Throughout this time, the officer failed to report the
incident to his superiors; he reported it only after it ended.
At a
certain point, the officer said, he felt that his soldiers' lives were in
danger, so he aimed live fire at the rocks near the boys. He claimed he
fired only one bullet directly at the youths, and it was aimed at their
legs. His soldiers confirmed that he was the only one who fired. The army
therefore believes the second boy might have been struck by a rock shard
knocked loose by one of the officer's bullets.
But Palestinian
witnesses told a different story: They said the boys fled the pursuing
soldiers only to run into a different force that was lying in wait near
the village. Uday's brother, Muweid, said he was with the group of fleeing
boys and saw the force waiting there.
"The officer suddenly began
firing at us," he said. Jamal and Uday were wounded, but the firing
continued for some time until "there was a break, and we heard the officer
talking on the radio and yelling with other soldiers, and we were able to
get to them [the wounded boys]."
The boys called an ambulance, but
Jamal, who was seriously wounded in the chest, died soon afterward, while
Uday, who was hit in the leg, bled to death en route to the hospital in
Ramallah. Israel asked the Palestinians to autopsy the boys, but the
families refused.
The Beit Lakia incident is not unusual. Every
day, soldiers and Border Police officers operate in some 15 villages near
this section of the separation fence, sometimes without either crowd
control equipment or clear rules of engagement. Since work on that section
of the fence began, at least 10 Palestinians have been killed during
protests against it, including eight children. Dozens of others have been
injured, some by live fire.