Palestinian mothers in occupied West Bank slam Israel's killing of children

Ramallah occupied West Bank – Mohammad Hoshieh was obsessed with football.

His family would fall into a fit of giggles every time he imitated sports commentators, as he often enjoyed doing.

So it was particularly tragic when the 12-year-old was fatally shot by Israeli occupation soldiers as he headed home from his cherished football practice on June 14.

His mother, Haneen Abu Ghwailah, spent eight days by his side as he lay unconscious in an intensive care unit before he succumbed to his wounds.

"I kept praying that he would wake up," the 37-year-old told TRT World. "It was very difficult," she added as her voice cracked and tears streamed down her face.

Her son's well-worn football sweater, gloves and trainers still adorn the side table at the entrance of her home, along with his Rubik's cube and the prayer beads he used to hold, in a shrine-like corner honouring his short life.

The killing of her son, she continued, is part of Israel's longstanding efforts to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its residents. "They don't want us to be here as a whole," she noted.

'Intent to kill children'

Since October, lethal violence by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem has spiked, in parallel with the country's war on besieged Gaza, in which more than 40,000 Palestinians, including over 16,000 children, have been killed.

While the most recent increase in killings can be pegged to October 7, it is in no way the starting point. The United Nations (UN) had already declared 2022 to be the deadliest for Palestinians, including children, in the occupied West Bank in two decades.

The rate of killings has shot up even further over the past 10 months. The latest figures by the UN's children's agency, UNICEF, noted a 250 percent increase in the killing of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. One Palestinian child has been killed every two days on average since October, the statement said.

Such systematic killings by Israeli soldiers, rights groups say, take place amid near-total impunity.

"It is clear that Israeli authorities and soldiers have an intent to kill Palestinian children," Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program Director at Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), told TRT World.

He noted that in the last period, soldiers have increasingly used other means of intentional killing. "What we've noticed is that they are increasingly preventing ambulances from transferring the wounded children and they leave them to bleed out, or they shoot them dead after they have been injured."

"This is proof of intentional killing. There are cases of Palestinian children who were shot dead in their homes, others who were participating in peaceful protests, others who were throwing rocks or Molotov cocktails," Abu Eqtaish said. In all of these cases, children do not pose a threat to the life of occupation soldiers, and do not warrant the firing of live ammunition, he added.

'A breath of life'

In the village of Deir Abu Mishaal about 24 km west of Ramallah, Salam Zahran cannot process the shock she experienced on July 9, when Israeli soldiers shot her 13-year-old son Ghassan dead.

Ghassan was playing with his friends on a scooter in an olive tree grove near the main road shared by Palestinians and illegal settlers, where soldiers are often stationed. Eyewitnesses said three soldiers emerged from a car and fired live bullets at the children, killing Ghassan.

"They opened fire. My son was injured with a bullet to the stomach and fell to the ground. Youth from the village tried to evacuate him when soldiers started shooting heavily towards them. They said that more than 20 bullets were fired at them," Zahran told TRT World from her home.

Israeli soldiers also prevented the ambulance from reaching Ghassan for up to 20 minutes, leaving him to bleed out, she added.

"Ghassan was a breath of life. He was a piece of my heart," said Zahran, with gasps of breath between her falling tears.

She has been unable to open his wardrobe since his killing.

"He was my middle son, and he was very kind. Whenever someone would say, 'You don't have any daughters?' I would say 'Ghassan is my daughter.' He was very helpful around the house; he would do the dishes and clean. He cared about lessening my load," Zahran said.

No matter what the circumstances of her son's killing, she explained, there are no legitimate reasons for the killing of a child by soldiers armed to the teeth.

"Even if he was holding a rock, how will a rock hurt them? He is a 13-year-old child! How can he hurt them? And for them to open fire at him with this much violence. Who is really the violent side here? Us or them? Who is the real terrorist here? Us or the occupation? Who has the ability to kill and decapitate heads?" she asked.

Amid the mass killings by Israel in Gaza, and the persistent deadly raids in the northern occupied West Bank cities such as Jenin and Tulkarem – where parents are having to bury the severed limbs of their children in plastic bags - many residents of the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem have come to feel gratitude for what should be one's basic rights.

"In light of what is happening in Gaza and in Jenin, and the entire situation on the ground, you start to think, 'thank God I was able to see him one last time and bid him farewell,'" Zahran said.

"Thank God I was able to bury him whole."