Thursday, April 17, 2008
Elder of Ziyon
A Palestinian boy from the northern West bank village of Beit Fureik near Nablus was found dead on Wednesday afternoon near the Israeli settlement of Al-Hamra.Once you take away the notoriously unreliable "testimony" of his relative, you are left with a Palestinian kid tortured and murdered. It would be an extremely rare occurrence for settlers to do such an act, but it is a daily event in the territories by Arabs.
15-year-old Hamid Khatatba had been missing for tor two days before his body was found, his cousin told Ma'an. The boy was employed as an agricultural worker in the Jordan Valley northeast of Nablus.
His cousin accused Israeli settlers of the killing, pointing out that the boy's neck was broken and there were signs of torture and blood on the body. He also highlighted that the Israeli authorities have refused to hand over Hamid's body to his family.
I was on the fence about adding this to the self-death count but PCHR, which zealously counts every person killed by Israel and a few who aren't, didn't include this kid in their weekly (Thursday to Wednesday) roundup even though reports of his body being found surfaced on Wednesday. And if settlers were seriously suspected in this crime, Ha'aretz would be all over this.
So I will count this as a self-death for now, bringing the year's total to 63 - 13 of them children.
In addition, after every major action "bodies" are found, which are blamed on Israel. But we've seen in the past that often Hamas will take advantage of Israeli actions and transport dead bodies from people they have killed to the areas of Israeli fire. But there is no real indication yet either way so these will not be counted yet.
