PCHR Fabricates Killing of Innocent ‘Child’

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is up to its old tricks — claiming that a slain Palestinian combatant was not involved in hostilities.

A PCHR statement yesterday (“IOF Kill Palestinian Child and Arrest Another One South of Hebron“) reads:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 14:30 on Thursday, 08 March 2012, IOF, backed by 4 military vehicles and an armored personnel carrier, moved into al-Mazraa crossroads area in the center of Yatta town, south of Hebron. They raided the house of Khaled Musa al-Makhamra, who was released from Israeli prisons in the recent prisoners swap, and nearby houses belonging to his brothers. They forced al-Makhamra’s wife and children to go out and held some of them in the outdoors. I n the meanwhile, a number of the locals gathered near al-Makhamra’s house. At approximately 15:35, IOF opened fire at Mohammed Omar Awwad al-Jundi, 17, who was a few meters away from IOF. Al-Jundi was wounded by a bullet to the right side. He suffered acute bleeding and parts of his bowels were out. IOF then opened fire indiscriminately at the Palestinians. As a result, Zakareya Jamal Mohammed Musa Abu ‘Arram, 16, was wounded by a bullet to the head. The bullet penetrated the head near the left eye and exited from the left temple. A part of the skull was smashed as a result and Abu ‘Arram died immediately.

And yet, as reported widely in the international media, the slain Palestinian in Yatta was neither a child nor was he standing idly by when he was shot. Nor did the soldiers fire “indiscriminately.” As reported, for instance, by the AFP:

A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops on Thursday after the stabbing of an Israeli soldier in Yatta village in the southern West Bank, the Israeli military told AFP.

“Palestinians attacked soldiers during an IDF (army) operation in Yatta to arrest suspects,” an Israeli military source said on condition of anonymity.

“One soldier was injured after being stabbed in the neck and the soldiers then opened fire on the Palestinians. One Palestinian was killed and another was injured.”

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the incident, near the city of Hebron.

“During routine activity in Yatta, a Palestinian man stabbed and injured an IDF soldier who responded by firing at the assailant, injuring him and killing a second Palestinian who accompanied the assailant,” he said.

A source at the Abu Hassan al-Qassim hospital in Yatta confirmed the death of one Palestinian, whom he identified as Zacharia Abu Aram, adding that two others were injured.

“The body of a youth in his twenties arrived at the hospital,” the source told AFP. “He died from a gunshot wound directly to the head.”

At least this puts J Street, which also just labeled Palestinian combatants as “civilians,” in good company.