PCHR weekly report 11/8 - 17/8/2011: 1 mentally disabled child killed, 1 fisherman and another civilian injured by gunfire

extracts from PCHR weekly report 11/8 - 17/8/2011:



Monday, 15 August 2011


At approximately 10:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northwest of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia opened fire at a number of Palestinian fishermen who were fishing at the beach. As a result, a fisherman, Yassin ‘Ali Zayed, 41, from al-Salatin area in Beit Lahia, was wounded by a bullet to the right leg. Zayed was nearly 300 meters away from the border. 

At approximately 18:00, Israeli soldiers stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired at two Palestinian civilians who were on an agricultural plot in the east of Khuza’a village, east of Khan Yunis., nearly 300 meters away from the border. One of these civilians, Hammouda Sami al-Najjar, 25, was wounded by a bullet to the left thigh.  

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

In the evening, IOF killed a Palestinian child from al-Nussairat refugee camp, who was 400 meters from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The victim's family told a PCHR field worker that their child had a mental disability. The victim was in an area that had not been explicitly declared as prohibited.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 18:00, Israeli soldiers stationed at the border northeast of Deir al-Balah opened fire at a Palestinian, who was nearly 400 meters from the border. As a result, he was wounded by 10 bullets in his head and chest. He was left wounded without being offered any first aid. After coordination was made with IOF, at approximately 19:20, medical crews were able to retrieve the body, which was then transferred to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. After four hours later, the child was identified as Sa'd Abdul Rahim Mahmoud al-Majdalwai, 17, from al-Nussairat refugee camp. He was hit by 10 live bullets mostly to the head. In his testimony to PCHR, the victim's father said that his son had been suffering from a mental disability and speech impairment.