The 12-year-old Palestinian boy whose death in an Israeli-Palestinian gun battle shocked the world was apparently killed by Israeli fire, a senior army commander admitted yesterday, expressing sorrow about the incident.
The television images of Mohammed Jamal Aldura's terrifying last moments have come to symbolise the chaotic nature of the violent confrontations of the past few days.
Mohammed died near an Israeli army post close to the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Caught in Israeli-Palestinian cross fire, Mohammed and his father, Jamal, huddled behind a small metal barrel. The child screamed in panic as bullets struck just inches above his head. Moments later, he was fatally hit, and his father critically injured.
"This was a grave incident, an event we are all sorry about," the army chief of operations, Giora Eiland, told Israel radio. "We conducted an investigation . . . and as far as we understand, the shots were apparently fired by Israeli soldiers from the outpost at Netzarim."
The deputy army chief of staff, Maj Gen Moshe Yaalon, called the boy's death "heartrending," but said the Palestinians have been making "cynical use" of children in the confrontations with Israeli troops.