A ten-year-old Palestinian boy lay in his hospital bed today, his body riddled by Israeli gunfire while he was flying a kite on the sand dunes of his refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
There were eight holes in the Abdel-Aziz al-Shamali’s body, marking entry and exit wounds where he was shot yesterday through his cheek, upper arm, pelvis and buttocks.
"The Israeli soldiers shouted through a megaphone for us to come closer," said al-Shamali, who said he had been playing with five boys, one of whom was slightly injured, near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said it had no specific information about the boy but after warning shots, it had opened fire at the legs of young men leading a group which had tried to tear down a fence at a Jewish settlement.
Israel and the Palestinians today tried to implement a shaky US-brokered ceasefire to end almost nine months of violence in which more than 500 people have been killed.
But this eveing nine Palestinians were injured by Israeli shooting near the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital sources said.At least one of the Palestinians is in serious condition, while a 12-year-old was also hit.
Israeli soldiers also opened fire on a group of some 20 Palestinians near the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, the sources said.
This morning a Palestinian and an Israeli were killed in a shooting in the West Bank.
A Palestinian opened fire on an Israeli car, wounding one of the passengers. He then returned fire and killed the attacker, an Israeli police spokesman said. A second Israeli in the car was shot dead by the initial gunfire.