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These are the Palestinian children

killed by Israel in 2016

Maureen Clare Murphy-25 January 2017

For Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, 2016 was


the deadliest year in the past decade.
Thirty-five Palestinian children were killed by Israeli soldiers,
police and armed civilians during the year, all but four of the
deadly incidents taking place in the West Bank. Children account
for a third of the 105 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip during 2016.
Most, but certainly not all, of those children were killed during the
course of what Israel alleges were attacks or attempted attacks,
mainly on soldiers at checkpoints in the West Bank.
Two Israeli civilians were killed in such incidents, one a 13-yearold girl stabbed to death in her bedroom in a West Bank

settlement, the sole Israeli child killed by a Palestinian during the


year.
But in the vast majority of alleged attacks that left a Palestinian
child dead, no Israeli civilians or soldiers were injured. In a handful
of cases, Israeli soldiers were reported to have suffered only light
injuries.
In several incidents, there may not have been any attempted
attack when a Palestinian child was shot and killed. Amnesty
International has called for one such slaying to be investigated as
an extrajudicial execution.
Other children were killed on their way to class, or coming home
from a pool party. Several were shot dead while protesting the
occupation. A brother and sister were killed in their Gaza home
when their neighborhood was hit in an Israeli airstrike.
As Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) points out,
Accountability for shootings [of Palestinian children] by Israeli
forces is extremely rare. Only one incident since 2014 has
resulted in an indictment.
The groups accountability program director Ayed Abu Eqtaish
stated: Intentional lethal force now appears to be routinely used
by Israeli forces, even in unjustified situations, with no
accountability, putting more and more children at risk.
DCIP has summarized other ways Israel violated Palestinian
childrens rights during the year.

These are the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in 2016:


Ahmad Younis Ahmad al-Kawazba, 17
Ahmad, from the village of Sair in the southern occupied West
Bank, was shot dead by Israeli forces after allegedly stabbing and
lightly wounding a soldier in the area of the Gush Etzion
intersection near the city of Hebron on 5 January.
Hebrons district attorney said the autopsy suggested the 17year-old had been left to bleed to death and had received no
medical treatment, the Maan News Agency reported.
Ahmad was buried next to his friend and schoolmate Mahmoud alShalalda, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in November
2015.
Alaa al-Din Abd Muhammad al-Kawazba, 17
Israeli forces shot and killed Alaa al-Din along with two of his adult
cousins near the Gush Etzion bloc of Israeli settlements north of
Hebron on 7 January. The army claimed the three were armed
with knives and attempted to attack soldiers. No soldiers were
reported injured during the attack. Alaa al-Din was from the
Hebron-area village of Sair.
Khalil Muhammad Issa Wadi, 15
Khalil was shot dead by Israeli forces after he allegedly attempted
to stab a soldier at the Beit Einoun junction near Hebron on 7
January. No Israelis were reported injured during the incident. The
boys adult brother, Mahmoud, was shot and killed by Israeli
forces in the same location in November 2015.
Like Ahmad al-Kawazba and Alaa al-Din Kawazba, Khalil was from
the Hebron-area village of Sair. He was at least the 10th resident
of the village to be slain by Israeli forces since October 2015,
including the November 2015 execution in a Hebron hospital

room of Abdallah Azzam al-Shalalda and the killing of a disabled


father of a young baby in December 2015.
Adnan Ayid Hamid al-Mashni, 17

Adnan Ayid Hamid al-Mashni


An investigation by the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz found that
Adnan, from the village of Shuyukh, was shot dead by Israeli
soldiers at the Beit Einoun junction near the West Bank city of
Hebron while on his way to physics class on 12 January.
Adnan had traveled to the junction in a taxi van and crossed the
road and entered into a second van when another young man in
the vehicle jumped out and yelled God is great while
brandishing a knife or hatchet, according to Haaretz.
The armed young man, Muhammad Kawazba from the village of
Sair, was immediately shot and killed. The driver of the van from
which Kawazba emerged tried to drive away as fast as he could,

for fear that he too would be shot, Haaretz added. The soldiers,
seeing the vehicle pulling out, opened fire at it, though they had
no idea who was inside it.
The driver managed to escape on foot while Adnan, still inside the
van, was struck in the upper right side of his body and died soon
after in hospital.
Ruqayya Abu Eid, 13
Ruqayya was shot dead by a private security guard after she
allegedly attempted to stab him in the Anatot settlement near
Jerusalem on 23 January.
A Palestinian member of Israels parliament, the
Knesset, condemned the girls slaying. Even if she had a knife, it
would have been possible to arrest a girl that age instead of
killing her, Esawi Frej of the Meretz party said.
Haaretz reported that Ruqayya died of a single bullet wound to
the heart.
I have no explanation for her decision, the girls father told the
paper. There were two guards there, and they could have
overcome her. A little girl. They are trained and armed, you know,
so how is it they could not arrest a little girl of 13? Was a girl of 13
a threat to them? Whatever she planned to do, they could still
have arrested her.
Ruqayya was laid to rest in the village of al-Karmel east of the
West Bank town of Yatta, near Hebron.
Hussein Abu Ghosh, 17
Hussein was shot dead by an Israeli security guard at a
supermarket in Beit Horon settlement near the central West Bank
city of Ramallah on 25 January.
The youth was killed along with Ibrahim Usama Allan, 23, after
stabbing two Israeli women; one of the women, 24-year-old
Shlomit Krigman, died from her injuries the following day. Israeli

media reported that Allan and Hussein were shot as they ran,
suggesting the two may have been extrajudicially executed.
Israeli forces destroyed Husseins family home in Qalandiya
refugee camp near Ramallah in April.
Punitive home demolitions, along with other acts of collective
punishment, are considered a war crime under the Fourth Geneva
Convention.
Ahmad Hassan Abd al-Latif Tubah, 17
Ahmad, from the village of Kufr Jammal, was killed by Israeli
forces after allegedly attempting to stab a soldier near a
settlement in the Tulkarm, West Bank, area on 1 February. No
soldiers were reported to have been injured.
According to media reports, he crossed the [Israels wall in the
West Bank] without an entry permit and was discovered by
soldiers who tried to apprehend him. He then pulled a knife on
them and was shot, the Israeli human rights group BTselem
reported.
Haitham Saada, 14
Haitham died after he was hit by two bullets fired by soldiers near
the entrance to Halhoul village, near Hebron, on 5 February. The
army said that the boy was preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail
at soldiers when he was killed.
Other than Haithams younger cousin, Wajdi, who was also in his
class and was with him when he died, and the soldiers, of course,
there are no eyewitnesses who can relate what happened and
why Haitham was shot and killed, the Tel Aviv
newspaper Haaretz reported at the time. Wajdi was arrested on
the spot and is still incarcerated in Ofer Camp, near Ramallah. He
has not been allowed visitors.
Omar Yousif Ismail Madi, 15
Omar was slain by a bullet when Israeli soldiers fired on youths
who were throwing stones at them in Arroub refugee camp near

Hebron on 9 February. The citys district attorney told the Maan


News Agency that the boy died after being hit by a single bullet
that entered his body from the right side of his chest. The bullet
penetrated the teens liver, kidneys, and spleen before exiting
his body from the lower left side of his rib cage.
Nihad Raed Muhammad Waked, 15, and Fuad Marwan Kamal
Waked, 15
Nihad and Fuad were shot and killed by Israeli forces after they
allegedly opened fire at soldiers on 14 February. No Israelis were
injured during the incident near the village of al-Araqa, west of
the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Palestinian emergency
medics were reportedly prevented from providing treatment at
the scene.
Soldiers reported that one of the Palestinians was armed with a
makeshift weapon and another was carrying a
knife, Haaretz reported. The boys families vehemently denied
the armys claim they had fired at the soldiers and said the two
were roaming farming lands owned by the family that are
adjacent to [Israels] West Bank barrier, the paper added.
I know the families and the two youths, these are not families
that deal with arms or have access to arms, a teacher in al-Araqa
who knew the teens told Haaretz. These are just kids and to
attribute an attempted shooting to them sounds highly unlikely or
believable.
Naim Ahmad Yousif Safi, 16
Naim was shot and killed after he allegedly attempted to stab an
Israeli soldier at a checkpoint north of the West Bank city of
Bethlehem on 14 February. Israeli police told media the teen
approached soldiers while carrying a knife. No Israelis were
reported injured during the incident. Naim was from the nearby
village of al-Ubediya.
Qusay Abu al-Rub, 16

Qusay Abu al-Rub (via Maan News Agency)


Soldiers fired on Qusay after he allegedly attempted to stab one
of them at the Beita checkpoint near Nablus in the northern West
Bank on 21 February. No Israelis were injured during the incident.
Palestinian medics were reportedly prevented from accessing the
wounded boy. Qusay, from Qabatiya village in the northern West
Bank, was the 10th youth from the town to be slain since October
2015.
Mahmoud Shaalan, 16
Mahmoud, a Palestinian American resident of the Ramallah-area
village of Deir Dibwan, was shot dead by Israeli forces near a
checkpoint in the central West Bank on 26 February. Israel
claimed that the boy had tried to stab soldiers when he was killed.
Amnesty International has stated that his death as well as that
of more than a dozen other Palestinians killed by Israeli forces

over the past year should be investigated as a possible


extrajudicial execution.
An eyewitness testified to the Israeli human rights group BTselem
that Mahmoud had attempted to cross a checkpoint and was
turned away by soldiers.
As he was walking away from the soldiers, one soldier shot
Mahmoud Muhammad Ali Shaalan from some distance away with
around three bullets. He immediately fell to the ground, and the
soldier then approached and shot him twice more, according to
the witness, Amnesty states.
An autopsy found that no bullets had been fired from close range,
throwing into question Israels claim that Mahmoud was
attempting to stab soldiers when he was killed.
Witnesses told Haaretz that soldiers prevented a Palestinian
ambulance from evacuating the boy, and that his naked body lay
on the road for more than two hours.
Fifteen rights and faith groups in the US have called on the
Obama administration to investigate the killing. A top US
diplomat told concerned groups that the US embassy in Tel Aviv
asked Israel to investigate Mahmouds death.
Labib Khaldoun Anwar Abd al-Azzam, 17 and Muhammad Hashim
Ali Zaghlawan, 17
Labib and Muhammad, both from Qaryut village near the West
Bank city of Nablus, were shot dead by Israeli forces on 2 March
after allegedly attacking and lightly injuring a settler as he was
leaving his home in the Eli colony. The settler was wearing his
army uniform, and was en route to the military reserve unit he
serves in, Israeli media reported.
Abd al-Rahman Radad, 17
Abd al-Rahman, from al-Zawiya village near the West Bank town
of Salfit, was shot and killed by police after he allegedly stabbed
and wounded an Israeli man near Petah Tikva, a city in Israel, on

18 March. Graphic video shows Abd al-Rahman lying on the floor


of a liquor store, gravely injured and apparently struggling to
breathe, as Israelis curse him and call for him to die.
Ahmad Yousif Ismail Amer, 16
Ahmad was shot dead by Israeli forces at a military checkpoint
outside of al-Zawiya village near the West Bank town of Salfit on 9
March. The village was blockaded by the military after one of its
residents, Abd al-Rahman Radad, allegedly stabbed an Israeli
before being shot dead by police.
An army spokesperson told media that an assailant armed with a
knife approached the checkpoint and soldiers thwarted the
attack by shooting him dead. No Israelis were injured during the
incident.
Another Palestinian was shot during the incident, and a local
official said that both wounded Palestinians were left bleeding
while Palestinian emergency medics were prevented from
reaching them.
Ahmad, from the nearby village of Masha, reportedly left
a note bidding farewell to his parents, asking them for their
forgiveness.
Yasin Abu Khusa, 9, and Isra Abu Khusa, 6
Yasin and Isra, brother and sister, were killed during an Israeli air
strike on their neighborhood in northern Gaza on 12 March.
The Abu Khusa family home, located on the outskirts of Beit
Hanoun, had been previously attacked twice by Israel in recent
years. They had asked the authorities in Gaza that they be
relocated somewhere safer, but their request went unanswered,
the family told The Electronic Intifada. They said they did not
receive any financial aid to repair damage caused during previous
attacks.
Yusif Walid Mustafa al-Tarayra, 17

Yusif, from the village of Bani Naim, was shot dead by soldiers
after he hit a military officer with his car in Kiryat Arba settlement
near Hebron on 14 March. The officer was lightly injured,
according to the Israeli human rights group BTselem.
Abdallah al-Ajluni, 16
Abdallah, from the West Bank city of Hebron, was shot dead by
Israeli Border Police after he stabbed and lightly injured a soldier
at at checkpoint near the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebrons Old City on
19 March.
Ibrahim Salih Hassan Taha, 16
Ibrahim was killed along with his pregnant adult sister, Maram
Salih Hassan Abu Ismail, a 23-year-old mother of two small
children, at the Qalandiya military checkpoint between Ramallah
and Jerusalem on 27 April.
Israeli police claimed the siblings were carrying knives and
attempted to attack soldiers. No Israelis were injured during the
incident.
Israels justice ministry declined to open an investigation after an
initial probe found that the brother and sister were shot by civilian
security guards and not by police.
Mahmoud Badran, 15
Mahmoud, from the central West Bank village of Beit Ur al-Tahta,
was killed when Israeli forces opened fire on a car of young
Palestinians returning from a late-night pool party celebrating
Ramadan on 21 June. Five others were injured during the incident,
including the driver of the car, who lost control of the vehicle
and crashed into a wall.
The army admitted the Palestinians were mistakenly hit while
soldiers were responding to reports of rock-throwing and
firebombing on a highway used by settlers in the West Bank.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that soldiers prevented


paramedics from providing first aid to the injured Palestinians for
more than 90 minutes.

Mahmoud Badran, at right, during the pool party he attended


shortly before he was killed. (BTselem)
One of the survivors told BTselem that the shooting came from a
civilian car.
Everything was normal and there was nothing suspicious, Hadi
Badran testified. Suddenly we were under fire. I looked at the
direction the fire was coming from and saw a white civilian car.
There were two people there, in civilian clothing, and they were
the ones shooting at us.
Media reports indicate that the soldiers and officer who opened
fire belonged to the Duchifat regiment of the Kfir brigade, and

that they were passing by, on their way to take care of logistical
matters, BTselem stated, adding that the soldiers arbitrarily
fired at the car, having no indication that any of its passengers
had been involved in stone or Molotov cocktail throwing.
According to the rights group, This shooting incident is a direct
result of military policy which enables, despite the official
prohibition in the [Israeli militarys] open-fire regulations, to use
deadly fire even in cases where there is no threat to life and even
when the soldiers have other, non-lethal, means at their disposal.
This policy is backed by the most senior ranking military and
government officials who do nothing do change it, despite the
lethal results.
Muhammad Nasir Mahmoud Khalil al-Tarayra, 16
Muhammad was shot dead after after stabbing a 13-year-old girl,
Hallel Yaffa Ariel, in her home in the Kiryat Arba settlement near
Hebron on 30 June.
The New York Times reported that Muhammad then locked himself
in the girls house for some time while armed residents of the
settlement, including the girls father, tried to track down who had
breached the settlements fence.
When they forced their way into her home, Muhammad, from the
nearby village of Bani Naim, stabbed one of the armed settlers
before being shot dead.
Ariel was rushed to a hospital, where she died a short time later.
The US State Department confirmed the girl held American
citizenship. Ariel was the only Israeli child killed by Palestinians
during 2016.
Israeli forces demolished the home belonging to Muhammads
family in August.
Muhyee al-Din Muhammad Sudqi Sadiq Tibakhi, 10

Muhyee Sidqi al-Tibakhi


Muhyee died after he was shot in the chest and head during
confrontations that broke out when Israeli forces raided al-Ram
town near Jerusalem on 19 July.
Defense for Children International - Palestine stated that the boy
died from a sponge-tipped bullet to the chest fired by Israeli
forces.

Muhyee is the second Palestinian child to be killed by a spongetipped bullet, according to the group. Muhammad Sinokrot, 16,
died of his injuries in 2014 after an Israeli Border Police
combatant shot the right side of his head, causing a skull fracture
and brain hemorrhage. An Israeli investigation of Muhammads
case was closed without charging the Border Police officer
responsible, Defense for Children said.
Abd al-Rahman Ahmad al-Dabbagh, 15

Abd al-Rahman Ahmad al-Dabbagh (DCIP)


Abd al-Rahman was killed instantly after he was directly hit by a
flare bomb fired by an Israeli soldier during a protest near the
boundary between Gaza and Israel on 9 September.
After the teen was hit, Abd al-Rahman was then seen lying on the
ground, with his head on fire, a report on the incident by the
human rights group Al-Haq stated.
His shocked friends ran to help him, but the Israeli soldiers
pointed their weapons at them, and stated, whoever will dare
and try to approach will suffer the same fate as him, Al-Haq
added.

Defense for Children International - Palestine published a video


still showing Abd al-Rahman lying on the ground, flames and
smoke coming from his head.
An X-ray image shared with DCIP appears to show the flare
punctured and lodged in Abd al-Rahmans skull above his left
eyebrow, the group stated. The projectile that killed Abd alRahman is produced by Chemring Ordnance and AMTEC
Corporation, both based in the US, DCIP added.
Firas al-Khadour, 17
A witness to the slaying of Firas denied Israels claim that the teen
was attempting to attack soldiers with his car when he was killed
on 16 September.
The witness, who was riding in the car with Firas when he was
killed, said that the vehicle had faulty brakes which failed when it
approached the Kiryat Arba settlement near the West Bank city of
Hebron, causing it to crash into a bus stop.
After the car was stopped, soldiers opened fire on it from multiple
directions, killing Firas and critically wounding the witness.
Firas began slowing down, but the brakes were not responding at
all. The cars speed was increasing, and he tried to use the
handbrakes to stop but that did not work out either, Raghad, the
witness, told Defense for Children International - Palestine. I was
very scared, and the scary part was that we were approaching the
entrance of the settlement.
Both Firas and the witness are from Bani Naim village.
Muhammad Thalji Kayid Thalji al-Rajabi, 15
Muhammad was shot dead after allegedly stabbing and lightly
injuring an Israeli soldier near the Tel Rumeida area of the Old City
of Hebron in the West Bank on 16 September. Israeli forces
reportedly prevented an ambulance from reaching al-Rajabi after
he was shot.
Amir Jamal al-Rajabi, 16

Amir was shot and fatally wounded along with Muhannad Jamal alRajabi, 21, while brandishing a knife at the Ibrahimi mosque
checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron on 19 September. The
Palestine Red Crescent Society told the Maan News Agency that
one of their ambulances was denied access to the scene. An
Israeli soldier was reportedly lightly injured in the hand during the
incident.
Issa Salem Mahmoud al-Tarayra, 15
Issa as slain by soldiers who claimed that the boy was carrying a
knife and intended to stab them at a checkpoint near the West
Bank town of Bani Naim on 20 September. No Israelis were injured
during the incident.
Faris Ziyad Ata al-Bayid, 15

Faris al-Bayed (DCIP)


Faris died on 23 December after he was in a coma for 69 days as
a result of being shot during confrontations with Israeli forces at
the entrance of Jalazone refugee camp near the West Bank city of
Ramallah.

Doctors told Defense for Children International - Palestine that a


rubber-coated metal bullet pierced the front of Faris head and
lodged in his brain, causing severe damage and bleeding.
Faris had attended a march commemorating the killing of Ahmad
Sharaka, 14, also from Jalazone camp, shot by soldiers one year
prior.
A military inquiry found that the soldiers were justified in opening
fire at Faris. The Israeli rights group BTselem stated, however,
that the shooting was unlawful, and that the boy did not pose a
lethal danger to soldiers when he was shot.
Khalid Bahr Ahmad Bahr, 15

Khalid Bahr Ahmad Bahr (DCIP)


Khalid was shot in the back from a distance of approximately 20
meters while running away from soldiers, who accused the teen of
throwing stones at them, at the entrance to a grove near Beit
Ommar, a village in the southern occupied West Bank, on 20
October.
A military inquiry into the incident determined that the soldiers
lives were not in danger, and that they could have acted

differently in this case, according to the Tel Aviv


newspaper Haaretz. An Israeli army spokesperson said that the
incident is being investigated by the Military Police Investigation
Unit, and will then be referred to the Military Advocate General.
The Israeli rights group BTselem stated that Israeli forces acted
without any justification and did not face lethal danger when
they shot the boy.
Israel withheld Khalids body for several weeks, preventing his
family from burying him.
Muhammad Nabil Jawdat Salam, 14

Ahmad Zeidani (DCIP)


Muhammad was shot dead by a private security guard near the
Shuafat checkpoint in the Jerusalem area on 25 November. Israeli
police claimed that the youth had attempted to carry out a
stabbing attack. No Israelis were injured during the incident.
Ahmad Zeidani, 17

Israeli forces shot Ahmad when he was running away from them
on 18 December, security camera footage released by BTselem
shows.
Ahmad was among a group of youths attempting to repel the
forces from entering Beit Rima, a village near the West Bank city
of Ramallah.
BTselem stated that the youths were some 10 to 20 meters
away from the soldiers and officers, and they were running away
from them when they were fired on. There was no justification
for shooting them and this action was unlawful.
Names and ages reported here may vary from earlier reporting by
The Electronic Intifada. All names, ages and dates of deadly
incidents presented here have been verified with Defense for
Children International - Palestine, which obtains the childs
government-issued ID card or birth certificate, or both in some
cases, typically from the childs immediate family, to verify name
and age.
Posted by Thavam

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