Description

Photos:
Nour Hamdan, 13-year-old Palestinian who lost his eye after Israeli forces shot him with sponge-tipped bullet (Credit: الدهيشة الحدث) Published by Maan News

Nur Hamdan with his father in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, Jerusalem, July 10, 2017 Credit: Emil Salman Published by Haaretz
______

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- A 13-year-old Palestinian from the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya lost his eye on Sunday after Israeli forces fired a sponge-tipped bullet at the teenager during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the neighborhood.

According to Israeli daily Haaretz, Israeli police had entered Issawiya after a fight broke out between neighbors. Palestinians began to hurl rocks at Israeli forces, who responded by shooting crowd-control weapons into the community.

According to the injured boy’s family, 13-year-old Nour Hamdan was struck by a sponge-tipped bullet when playing with other children on the second-floor balcony of their home.

The family told Haaretz that when Hamdan’s mother called the children to come inside due to Israeli police presence in the area, Hamdan stood up and was hit in the eye with the bullet.

Hamdan, who the family reportedly said was not involved in any incident of rock-throwing, suffered from fractures in his eye socket and other facial injuries.

According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), in 2014 Israeli forces began using black sponge-tipped bullets as a crowd control weapon during clashes with Palestinians. The new bullets are “twice as hard and heavy and their potential to cause injury is much greater” than the bullets used previously, according to ACRI.

The group has documented 30 cases of Palestinians being injured with sponge-tipped bullets shot by Israeli forces between July 2014 and February 2016 in occupied East Jerusalem, with at least 12 East Jerusalem residents losing an eye, half of whom were children

In September 2014, Muhammad Sunqrat was killed after being shot by sponge-tipped bullets in the neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz in East Jerusalem, ACRI added.

“These severe injuries indicate that treating the new sponge-tipped bullets as a non-lethal weapon is unreasonable, and that they are not an appropriate means for dispersing demonstrations and riots,” ACRI said.

Israeli military regulations in the occupied Palestinian territory say that Israeli forces may only fire sponge-tipped bullets at the legs, and never at children. Israeli forces are also required to be 50 to 60 meters from their targets.

The dozens of cases in which Palestinians have been injured by sponge-tipped bullets and other “non-lethal weapons” has reflected a “wanton disregard by Israeli forces of the guidelines for using such weapons,”Accountability Program Director of Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) Ayed Abu Eqtaish said in 2015.

“Yet the failure of Israeli authorities to properly investigate and hold perpetrators accountable provides Israeli forces with tacit approval to inflict maximum harm,” he added.

Meanwhile, other crowd-control weapons used by Israeli forces, including tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, have caused serious injuries among Palestinians and dozens of deaths.

In May, 52-year-old Fatima Ubeid from Issawiya was released from an Israeli hospital blinded in one eye, after Israeli forces shot her with a rubber-coated steel bullet during a raid in April.

On Friday, an 18-month-old Palestinian infant died, some two months after suffering from tear gas inhalation when Israeli forces shot tear gas at Palestinian homes in the village of Abud in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah.
______

Palestinian Teen Loses Eye to Sponge-tipped Bullet Shot by Israeli Police

Nur Hamdan, 13, was standing on the balcony of his Jerusalem home when he was hit by the bullet, his family says; Police: Troops responded with crowd-control weapons after being pelted with rocks

by Nir Hasson for Haaretz

A 13-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem lost his eye Sunday night when he was hit by a sponge-tipped bullet, fired by the police.
The family of the teenager, Nur Hamdan, said that the bullet hit him while he was standing on their second-floor balcony. He also suffered eye socket fractures and other facial injuries.

The police said that troops came to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyah due to a fight between neighbors. When they arrived, Palestinians began pelting them with rocks and other items, and in response they used crowd-control weapons to drive the stone-throwers away.

Nur’s uncle, Ali Hamdan, said the boy wasn’t involved in the incident at all, but was simply standing on the balcony alongside his mother and a cousin.

“The children were playing on the balcony until my wife called them to come inside because of the police,” the elder Hamdan said. “He was hit just as he stood up to go in.”

Nur was taken first to a local clinic, then to Hadassah University Hospital on Mt. Scopus, and finally to Hadassah’s Ein Karem campus.

About three years ago, the police began using a new kind of sponge-tipped bullet, colored black, which is heavier, harder and more lethal than the old blue type. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel says the new bullets have so far caused dozens of serious injuries and one death.

“This is a dangerous weapon that has already taken the life of one teen and caused head injuries to dozens of people, including children,” said attorney Nisreen Alyan of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. “Some lost their sight.”

“It’s unacceptable that people who are on their balconies or near a window shouldn’t be safe, and should be injured by sponge-tipped bullets fired contrary to police regulations,” Alyan added. “This isn’t the first time a serious incident like this has happened in Isawiyah, and it clarifies the need for oversight of the police by the attorney general, and also the need to stop using the black sponge-tipped bullets.”

According to police regulations, sponge-tipped bullets should never be fired at children; if fired at adults, they should be aimed exclusively at their legs. Nevertheless, there have been dozens of cases in which people lost their eyes or suffered other facial injuries from such bullets. In 2014, teenager Mohammed Sunuqrut was killed by a sponge-tipped bullet, and in another case, a Palestinian hit by one of these bullets suffered serious brain injury.