[IsraelTimes] Police say incident occurred during attempt to disperse demonstrators, investigation opened; father says boy may lose one or both of his eyes.
A 9-year-old boy was seriously maimed on Saturday after he was apparently injured by a sponge-tipped bullet during a police operation in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, Hebrew media reported.
The boy’s father told the Haaretz daily that his son had serious facial injuries, may be suffering from brain damage and there are concerns he may lose one or both of his eyes as a result of his wounds.
| “Doc Avi says there is a shallow scratch on one cheek — you can see it if you look closely under a strong light. He gave my son a Superman bandaid.” |
Israel Police said in a statement that the boy was hurt during an attempt to disperse demonstrators during a police operation, and that an investigation had been opened.
| “Yep. Shallow scratch. The bandaid had Original Superman, not one of those namby-pamby remake versions.” |
The boy’s father denied that there were demonstrations prior to the incident.
| “We do civil, well-reasoned discourse here in the ancient city, and everyone knows what that means.” |
Community leaders have argued that the police have unreasonably stepped up its operations in Issawiya over the past several months and employed excessive force against residents, undermining stability and stoking tensions in the neighborhood.
| Requiring the residents to live with law and order — how hateful! |
Police officials, however, have pushed back against the charges, asserting that the heightened operations in Issawiya directly correlate with what they describe as increased violence emanating from the neighborhood.
Since May, the police have raided over 500 homes in Issawiya and arrested more than 600 residents ‐ only about 20 of whom were indicted, Mohammed Abu Hummus,
| Look — these articles come to us with the names already written in. There’s nothing we can do about ’em. |
a member of the neighborhood’s Parents Committee, said in an interview earlier this year
Locals, meanwhile, have lately stepped up violence against coppers, according to Israel Police front man Micky Rosenfeld.
Saturday’s incident came a day after an Israeli soldier was lightly injured by a stone and four Paleostinians were hurt in a protest in the West Bank village of Budrus. The soldier was treated at the scene northwest of Ramallah and then sent to a hospital, according to Hebrew media reports. The condition of the Paleostinians was not clear.
Protests were also reported in Ramallah, Nablus and near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Troops fired tear gas at Paleostinians who threw rocks and set tires on fire. |
