Save The Children documents death of 34 children in 2022 and calls on Israel to end “culture of impunity” with snipers
Jana Zakarneh was about to turn 16 and had a white cat named Lulu. She also had dreams, illusions, fantasies… Like every girl her age in the world. A few days ago I shared a photo on social networks with a sign that read: “Don’t think and don’t doubt Jana, because we girls have a lot of problems.” He lived in the Al-Bayadir neighborhood of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, where a week ago Israeli special forces launched a raid that arrested 18 people. These raids are very common in a city where the flame of Palestinian armed resistance is kept alive.
After half past nine at night the offensive began and an intense firefight lasted twenty minutes. When it was over, Jana’s 13-year-old father and little brother started searching the house for her, room after room, but she wasn’t there. They went to the terrace and there they found her, in the middle of a pool of blood.
The teen had tried to capture the cat and an Israeli sniper shot her four times, twice in the head, one in the neck and one in the back, according to what the father told local media. With that, Jana was blacklisted among the 34 minors Israel has killed in the occupied territories in 2022, double that of last year and the highest since 2015, according to Save The Children.
“The army regrets any kind of damage to civilians, including those who are in the battle zone and close to terrorists during a firefight,” the Hebrew armed forces said when the Palestinian Health Ministry reported Jana’s death. The military also said it would open an investigation, but for a long time that was just a procedure before the international community.
Politicians and the military join some soldiers who, whatever they do, are “heroes”, as the next Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, described them a week ago, following the circulation of some images showing a man in uniform shot multiple times at an unarmed Palestinian youth lying on the ground.
“The continued use of lethal force against children is unacceptable. So far this year, 34 Palestinian children have been killed, the bloodiest year of the last 15,” said Jason Lee, head of Save The Children in the occupied territories, who also has words of remembrance for the 16-year-old Israeli teenager. died years after a bomb explosion at the stop where he waited for the bus in Jerusalem.
Lee warns of “the escalation of violence we are witnessing in the Palestinian territories” and says that “the culture of impunity will only serve to perpetuate the cycles of violence. This must stop. If no action is taken to to de-escalate the situation, children will continue to pay the price.The international organization is asking the military to stop using live ammunition against minors and calling for independent investigations to clarify any death.
It’s raining and pouring in Jenin, where another sniper shot Shirin Abu Akhle in the neck in May. The American-Palestinian journalist could identify herself perfectly with her ‘Press’ vest and was in an area where the press is usually stationed during raids. At first the army lied and blamed the Palestinian militias, but soon had to backtrack and admit the “high probability” that it was one of them who had “accidentally” fired. The family is crying out for justice, but no one has paid and will not pay for that death because “there is no suspicion of any crime warranting the opening of an investigation by the military police,” the army said.
The same will happen with Jana’s death. Snipers enjoy impunity to pull the trigger on anyone in their sights, including children, as reported by Save The Children.
Source: La Verdad
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