'I want my eye back': Palestinian children’s eyes in Israeli crosshairs

It was like any other day in the life of the Malalha family from Village Bazariya near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, but a few moments changed everything.

On June 23, Akram Malalha was driving to the market with his five-year-old son, Khaled. While passing through the town’s streets, they heard heavy gunfire near one of the entrances to the village — there was an ongoing clash between the residents and the Israeli Army.

Akram didn’t notice that his little boy in the back seat had been hit in the eye by an Israeli rubber bullet. Until Khaled started crying out loudly. The father turned back and found his little boy's face covered in blood.

“It was a terrible scene. Khaled's face and clothes were covered in blood. I didn't know a bullet hit his eye. I quickly stopped the car and jumped into the back seat to calm him down. That’s when I saw a big hole in the shattered window, and knew my child had been hit by Israeli bullets,” Akram tells TRT World.

For the family and the little boy, the next few hours were spent in agony, as they transported the kid to a nearby medical centre, and then to the An-Najah Hospital in Nablus, where doctors told them they didn’t have the capacity to deal with the badly damaged eye.

That night, the injured child was transferred to the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where doctors conveyed to the shocked parents that they had decided to remove his eye as there was no chance of saving it.

“We were like drowning people clinging to any thread of hope, consoling ourselves and trying to imagine what we could do so that Khaled’s eye could be saved, but it seemed the injury was really serious and there was no solution but to remove it,” the father adds.

Due to the sensitivity and complexity of the operation, Khaled was transferred to the Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv. He was lucky to receive the treatment without any delay.

The process of transferring Palestinian patients to Israeli hospitals presents its own set of challenges. Many injured Palestinians endure waiting periods of days or even months before they are granted permission for transport.

Israeli hospitals have long faced criticism for mistreating Palestinian patients and also making cosmetic moves to show the world that they are carrying out their professional duties without discriminating non-Israeli patients, including Palestinians.

In many cases, wounded and sick Palestinians encounter barriers such as lack of permits or other security clearances, preventing their access to Israeli hospitals. Occupied West Bank residents often suffer from such bureaucratic hurdles in light of tough security restrictions imposed by Israel.

According to international law, Israel, as the occupying power, has a legal obligation to ensure the health and welfare of the Palestinian population under its control. This includes providing access to adequate medical treatment, ensuring the availability of medical supplies, and maintaining medical services. Israel is also required to create the conditions in which the necessary medical services can be delivered in the event of sickness.

In Khaled's case, his eye was eventually removed at the Tel Hashomer Hospital. A white bottle was inserted in its place. The child suffered excruciating pain throughout and after the surgery.

But the bigger damage and pain was psychological — something Khaled is still suffering from. Every day, he reduces his father to tears when he asks innocently: “I want my eye back. When will the doctors return it to me?”

“The innocence on his face as he asks me the question kills me from inside. He knows Israel made him lose his eye, but he thinks it will return to him and he will be able to see again,” says Akram with a sigh.

The psychological trauma is exacerbated by little Khaled’s refusal in cooperating with the psychiatrists. Instead, he has become isolated and withdrawn. He doesn't want to play, nor ride in the car with his father again.

Deliberate targeting

Geneva-based NGO Defence for Children International has documented that four Palestinian children have lost their eyes so far this year due to targeted Israeli firing with 15-year-old Tariq Jamal Jumaa becoming the most recent victim after losing his eye due to an Israeli army bullet on Saturday, August 12th.

The director of its accountability programme, Ayed Abu Qutaish, told TRT World that Israeli soldiers deliberately target Palestinian civilians, including children, from close, and especially towards the upper parts of the body, with the aim of killing them or causing them permanent disabilities.

The NGO has also documented that since the beginning of this year, 40 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli bullets, compared to 44 children over the whole of 2022. They also claim that causing eye injury to children is not the specific objective of the Israeli Army, targeting them is.

According to Abu Qutaish, Israel takes advantage of the exceptional protection from accountability they enjoy from international pressure groups, to provide its soldiers a blanket of impunity.

“According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, these fall under war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he adds.

The severity of the psychological trauma the victims and their families suffer after the children lose their eyes, is such that despite the existence of institutions that provide psychological support, the injuries leave a lasting impact.

“Targeting Palestinian children has no limits. It involves shooting, chasing, arresting, torturing them even after arrest and using them as human shields, all of which are methods used by Israel without any accountability.” Abu Qutaish concludes.

“I feel incomplete”

On April 24, Omar Assi (16) was in the yard of his house when Israeli soldiers fired a stun grenade on its roof. It fell in front of him and exploded, with the shrapnel wounding him in the face.

Suddenly, the world turned dark and he could no longer see anything. He screamed at the top of his voice as blood streamed from his face and turned the yard red. He was quickly taken to a hospital, where they made a valiant attempt to treat him.

“After hours in the operating room, the doctors came out to tell my family that I had lost sight in the right eye, and that they were struggling to save the left one,” Omar says.

The pain of the shrapnel all over his face, head and eyes, was excruciating. He was unable to open his eyes for several days, and wasn’t aware that he had almost lost his sight completely.

“When I opened my eyes, I didn’t see anything in the right eye. As for the left, I saw fog and unclear movement of people around me. After that, I underwent four surgeries on the left eye, none of which succeeded in improving my vision,” he says.

Omar’s life literally changed after his injury. He couldn’t complete the last semester in his school because of his poor eyesight. He has to hold things close to his face to see them. He sits at home all the time and doesn’t want to go out with his friends or to the field with his father, as he used to.

“I feel inferior. I want to go back to my previous life, study, hang out with friends and help my parents. Israel deprived me of all that in one moment,” Omar adds.

Omar's father Talal Asi told us the entire family’s life has changed. They can’t leave Omar alone because he has a retina implant and shouldn’t move much. They try to support him psychologically and help him with all his daily needs.

“Omar is my eldest son, he was the backbone of the house with his high energy, movement and help for us. He was jovial all the time. But now he is a sad and frustrated person.”

Merciless

The policy of targeted shooting is not limited to children alone. Targeting the eyes of Palestinians in general has become a custom for the Israeli Army during confrontations and incursions.

According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, six residents of Village Bita, just south of Nablus, received eye injuries during the confrontations that erupted on their land over a year ago. Between 2021 and 2022, 12 Palestinians in Jerusalem were injured in their eyes during confrontations that broke out in the city.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist opposing occupation and settlement, said Israel targets the upper torso of children in general and their eyes in particular for several reasons, most notably to punish Palestinian society and the children's parents for their continued resistance to the Israeli occupation. He says the Israelis call it “raising the price of resistance”.

Amro considers Israeli soldiers to be extremists and fascists who are trying to practise sadism on Palestinian children. "The Israeli soldier is defeated, and wants to feel his ability is alive by bullying children and targeting them with weapons," he adds.