Israel targets Palestinian boys

On 6 April, Israeli soldiers killed Amer Rabee, 14, and injured two other Palestinian children, Ayub Jabar and Abdulrahman Shihada, both 15. The boys were collecting green almonds in the occupied West Bank town of Turmusaya.

Israeli soldiers fired 47 bullets at the children.

Amer was shot 11 times, including twice in the head. Ayub was shot in the abdomen and Abdulrahman in the thigh.

Israel posted a statement accompanied by a grainy video in which it claimed that its forces engaged in a counterterrorism operation that prevented “terrorists” from throwing rocks on a highway below and endangering civilians.

Amer was a Palestinian American – as are the other two boys – and the US State Department issued a statement that acknowledged Israel’s claims. Although it offered condolences to the Rabee family, it did not condemn or even criticize Israel for killing and wounding unarmed American citizens or ask why lethal force was deployed against children.

Neither the State Department nor The New York Times acknowledged that even after the boys were shot, Israel delayed an ambulance.

This fits into a pattern of Israeli actions.