Rights and Accountability 6 September 2019
A file photo taken on 14 January 2019 shows Ali al-Ashqar bidding a final farewell to his friend Abd al-Raouf Salha, 13, who died after he was hit in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli forces during Great March of Return protests. Ali al-Ashqar, 17, was killed by an Israeli sniper’s bullet during protests on 6 September.
APA imagesIsraeli occupation forces shot and killed two Palestinian children during Great March of Return protests, Gaza’s health ministry stated on Friday.
The ministry named one of those slain as Ali Sami Ali al-Ashqar, 17. He was reportedly shot in the head east of Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
Palestinian outlets published this photo of the teen after his death:
The second killed child was identified as Khalid Abu Bakr al-Rabai, 14, shot in the chest east of Gaza City.Sixty-six others were injured during Friday’s protests, 38 of them by live fire.
Nearly 50 children are among the 210 Palestinians who have been killed during the protests since their launch in early 2018.
Nineteen Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza so far this year, most of them during Great March of Return protests.
More than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza have severe bone infections after being shot during protests, according to Doctors Without Borders.
“Their serious and complex wounds require months – if not years – of dressing, surgery and physiotherapy,” Doctors Without Borders stated this week.“Infections prevent recovery, and to make matters worse, many of them are resistant to antibiotics.”
Half of the more than 7,400 Palestinians who have been wounded with live ammunition during the protests have “open fractures, where the bone is broken near the wound,” the world medical charity added.
Patients with bone infections may be isolated during treatment for several weeks, making it a long and difficult road to recovery.
“Treating these infections would be tough anywhere in the world, but in Gaza it is even tougher,” according to Doctors Without Borders. Gaza’s health system is “reeling” from more than a decade of Israeli blockade, as well as Palestinian political division and Egyptian restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Basic services are yet again being treated like a political football with Qatar reportedly halving the amount of fuel it funds to operate Gaza’s sole power plant.
“As a result, Gazans will now get only five to six hours of electricity per day, down from the eight they were getting until now,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
Sources told the paper that the funding cuts are meant to put pressure on Hamas, who wants to be made partner in or receive funds from the implementation of development projects in Gaza.
Comments
Right of return
Permalink Frank Dallas replied on
Jabalya was captured and ethnically cleansed by the Hagana and Irgun as part of Operation Hametz, launched on 29th April 1948. UN Resolution 194 grants the Palestinians so removed from their homes the right of return. Ali and Khalid were killed attempting to assert their rights under international law. The forces that shot them acted in defiance of international law. Futile to speak of democracy while this happens. Futile to speak of two-State or any other kind of solutions. There is no solution while Israel is permitted to defy the law and to kill people who try to claim their rights. That is not going to change while Israel is permitted to assert its claims, not according to international law, but genetic entitlement. It is axiomatic that States do not unilaterally define their own borders. Israel has no defined borders.
How could the killings of Ali and Khalid be defined as anything but racist? Effectively, they are the continuation of the ethnic cleansing carried out between December 1947 and the latter half of 1948. Notwithstanding the Israeli version, the evidence is uncontroversial. So who bears the responsibility for the deaths of Ali and Khalid? The "international community" that amorphous and sometimes, it seems, quasi-mystical body which advertises itself as the bulwark of human rights and democracy but colludes with a regime brought into existence by terrorism and ethnic cleansing which refuses to adhere to the law.
Netanyahu is about to visit Britain where the PM claims his duty to uphold the law, with regard to one piece of legislation at least, is "theoretical". They make a good pair: one who treats the law as "theoretical" when he doesn't like it, and the other who simply ignores it. Who can stop them? We can. The common folk of the world. Only we can. The UN passes resolutions and Israel ignores them. World leaders turn a blind eye. We must make it impossible not only for Israel to ignore the law but for the rest of the world to let it.
Frank Dallas, you are absolutely right
Permalink Martin O'Brien replied on
Frank Dallas, you are absolutely right. The abominations that "Israel" carries out daily on Palestinians could never take place without the material help and diplomatic and media help given to it by the UK, USA, Germany, France and many other countries. The ordinary citizens of those countries are not calling their governments to account for the way in which they are destroying the United Nations Charter, the greatest moral advance ever made by Mankind in its dealings within and between countries.
Yes , Mr. Dallas you are very
Permalink John A. El-Amin replied on
Yes , Mr. Dallas you are very right ! Justice will prevail , Palestine will be free and those responsibe for the atrocities will be shown as criminals.