While Palestinian media blames Israeli settler, IDF says boy and his brother were playing with a gun that misfired.
Ha’aretz
A 6-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in his stomach near the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Saturday. The circumstances surrounding the shooting are unclear, with conflicting accounts of the incident.
According to Palestinian reports, the child, Youssef Al-Tabib, was standing alongside the main road from his village of Izbet Tabib near Qalqilya with his older brother when an Israeli driver pulled up, left his vehicle and shot the child before fleeing the scene. However, the Israeli military vehemently denies the claim, saying the shooting was a misfire caused by the victim and his brother, which they said were playing with the gun before it fired.
An Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson initially told Palestinian media that the army had received reports of the attack and that Israeli forces had arrived on scene and were “investigating any indication that the attack happened.”
Later, a military source who spoke to Haaretz said the incident was a result of “children playing with a gun.” The source blasted the claim that an Israeli settler was behind the shooting as “blatant lies” and added the brother was taken in for questioning.
According to Bian Al-Tabib, the boy’s father, 6-year-old Youssef was with his 18-year-old brother when the incident happened. He said the older of the two brothers told him that while near the main road the young boy suddenly fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. When he looked up, he allegedly saw a car with Israeli license plates speeding away. However, the father noted that there were no other witnesses to the event.
The senior brother then called local rescue forces that the boy to a Palestinian hospital in serious condition, suffering from a single bullet wound to the abdomen. The child is currently in stable but still serious condition, and is on life support.
If nationalistic in nature, the shooting would be the latest development in the growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. On Thursday, an Israeli couple was shot dead in their car while their four children were in the back.
Later on Thursday night, a 28-year-old woman was lightly wounded by stones hurled toward her at Itzhar Junction. Around the same time, a Palestinian driver was lightly hurt in a similar incident at the entrance to Nablus.
