- RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters)
- Israeli soldiers shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl in the
southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday after she approached an army watchtower
in a tense border zone, witnesses said.
-
- An Israeli military source said the girl was shot inside
a restricted area when soldiers suspected she had a bomb. Palestinian medics
said she had been hit by 20 bullets.
-
- Iman al-Hams and two other girls, all of them wearing
school uniforms, passed a watchtower in Rafah refugee camp near the Egyptian
border, a scene of frequent violence in a 4-year-old uprising, Palestinian
witnesses said.
-
- "Israeli soldiers stormed the area, the girl left
the bag and tried to run," said one. "Bullets hit the bag and
then soldiers opened fire on the girl."
-
- An Israeli military source said the girl entered an area
that was clearly marked with no-entry signs at a time there had been shooting
from Rafah.
-
- Soldiers opened fire towards her after she dropped her
bag and ran. They suspected that the bag contained a bomb, the source said,
but had not yet checked.
-
- "She was peppered with bullets, in the head, chest,
legs," said Iman's brother, Ehab, 25.
-
- Rafah is well away from the northern Gaza Strip, where
Israeli troops have killed 67 Palestinians in a six-day-old offensive launched
after a rocket fired by militants killed two children in an Israeli town.
- Reuters
|