Events in the village started this morning, when, joined by international and Israeli activists, the unarmed villagers set out towards the path of the wall, to try and defend their groves from the destruction the Israeli machinery was causing in them. The villagers were met with brutal violence which included the arrest of Muhammed Amireh of the village's popular committee. When the demonstration started winding down and pushed from the groves to the village's last houses, at around 15:00, 18 injuries were counted, including a teenager who was shot with rubber-coated bullets from a distance of only a few meters and suffered penetration wounds. Clashes had slowly moved from the groves and the village's last houses to the village's main entrance.
At around 17:30, a small group kids and teenagers, decided to go, on their own, towards the path of the wall, in order to dismantle a newly installed razor wire barricade. The barricade was laid to prevent demonstrator from reaching the path of the wall and disrupt construction. After a few minutes, a border police jeep arrived at the scene and shot a few rounds of rubber-coated bullets. The group ran away, escaping towards the village, but ten year old Ahmad Mousa fell down in the rocky terrain and lost one of his shoes. When he turned back to pick it up, a border policeman aimed his M-16 rifle towards him and fired a single shot of live ammunition. The bullet hit Ahmad in the forehead and exited from the back of his head, shattering his skull and killing him on the spot. His two brothers and his friends that were there with him had to carry him back to the village, about a kilometer away, leaving a thick trail of blood behind them.
Ahmed Mousa (facing camera), pictured as a wounded man was evacuated from the demonstration earlier the day he was murdered Picture by: Palestine Solidarity Project
Ahmad was taken to the Ramallah hospital in an ambulance, but his father was barred from accompanying him by the soldiers posted at the entrance to the village. He had to leave the village through the groves, risking being shot at himself, in order to reach the main road and continue on to the hospital where his son was taken to.
Despite this cold blooded murder, the army maintained presence at the entrance to the village, shooting teargas and rubber-coated bullets at the enraged villagers. One of the boys that was with Ahmad at the time of the murder said he identified the shooter among the forces standing at the entrance to the village.
The Israeli media mostly reported this event, just as they report any other event – a rewrite of the army's spokesperson press release. Haaretz newspaper focused its article on a mild injury of one of the soldiers, and the violence of the demonstrators. A senior military officer, hiding behind his anonymity, was even quoted saying that the army's restraint is taken advantage of by the villagers.
Ahmed Mousa's father kissing his dead son's body
