In one of its most shocking reports on the Israeli-Palestinian war, Amnesty
International today condemns both sides in the conflict for their "utter disregard"
for the lives of children – 250 of them Palestinian and 72 Israeli –
who have been killed over the past year.
In a 29-page report containing some of the most painful evidence amassed on
child-killing in the occupied territories and Israel, the organization blames
Israel for "excessive and disproportionate use of lethal force" and "reckless
shooting" in residential areas, and Palestinians for "direct and indiscriminate
attacks", including suicide bombings.
The solemn list of dead children that Amnesty has collected shows just how
ingrained child-killing has become. There is Sami Jazzar, shot in the head by
an Israeli soldier on the eve of his 12th birthday in Gaza, 11-year-old Khalil
Mughrabi, killed by an Israeli sniper in Gaza – one of his friends survived
after being shot in the testicles by a high-velocity round – and 10-year-old
Riham al-Ward, killed in her Jenin schoolyard by an Israeli tank shell.
Then there are Raaya and Hemda, aged 14 and two, killed with their parents
by a Palestinian suicide bomber in a Jerusalem pizzeria, Shalhevet Pass –
just 10 months old – shot by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron, and Avia Malka,
killed by Palestinians who fired on and threw grenades at cars in Netanya. She
was nine months old.
Amnesty's condemnation has rarely been so scathing. "The pattern of killings
of children which has become so entrenched and widespread in the past two years
developed against a background of impunity for the perpetrators of such crimes,"
it says.
Despite repeated claims to the contrary: "No judicial investigation is known
to have been carried out into any of the killings of children by members of the
IDF [Israel Defense Forces] in the occupied territories, even in cases where Israeli
government officials have stated publicly that investigations would be carried
out." None of the Israeli soldiers responsible for these crimes is known to have
been brought to justice, Amnesty says.
It also attacks Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority for imprisoning militants
for political purposes rather than submitting them to fair trials for the killing
of children. It says the assertion by Palestinian armed groups that international
law imposes no constraints on them is untrue. "No violations by the Israeli army,
no matter their scale or gravity, can ever justify the targeting and killing of
Israeli children or any other civilians by Palestinian groups."
In the first seven months of this year, more than 100 Palestinian children
have been killed by Israeli gunfire, 48 per cent of them 12 years old or younger.
Amnesty pulls no punches about who is to blame. The majority of these children,
it says, "were killed when the IDF randomly opened fire, or shelled or bombarded
residential neighborhoods in Palestinian towns and villages. Most of these children
were killed when there was no exchange of fire and in circumstances in which the
lives of the soldiers were not at risk."
The most terrible incident – praised by the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel
Sharon, at the time as a "great success" – was the attack
by Israel on Salah Shehada, a Hamas activist, which also slaughtered nine
children along with eight adults. Their names give a terrible reality to this
bloodbath: 18-month old Ayman Matar, three-year-old Mohamed Matar, five-year-old
Diana Matar, four-year-old Sobhi Hweiti, six-year-old Mohamed Hweiti, 10-year-old
Ala Matar, 15-year-old Iman Shehada, 17-year-old Maryam Matar. And Dina Matar.
She was only two months old. An Israeli air force pilot dropped a one-ton bomb
on their homes from an American-made F-16 aircraft on 22 July.
Amnesty also highlights the carnage at the Dolphinarium nightclub in Tel Aviv
on 1 June last year when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 21 people, of whom
12 were under 18. They included 15-year-old Raisa Namirovsky, 14-year-old Maria
Tagilchev, 15-year-old Yevgenia Dorfman, 15-year-old Kastanada Talker, 16-year-old
Yulia Nelimov, Anya Kazachkov and Mariana Medvedenko, both aged 16, and Marina
Berkovski. Marina had gone to the club to celebrate her 17th birthday.
Amnesty says if international monitors had been deployed on the ground –
and Israel has repeatedly refused to allow this – many of the children's
lives might have been spared. What the international organization does not say,
but which its report makes abundantly clear, is that children have become "fair
game" for both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian war. Innocence, as usual, has
been trampled by two brutal antagonists.
© 2002 lndependent Digital (UK) Ltd
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