Birzeit—Today, 7 December 1998, Naser Muhammad I'riqat, a third year Commerce student at Birzeit University, was shot in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet by Israeli soldiers while standing on the roof of his home in Abu Dis, Jerusalem. According to eye witnesses, immediately after clashes erupted in the center of Abu Dis village this afternoon where the I'riqat home is situated, Naser climbed up to the roof of his home to bring his younger brother down, fearing for his safety. Whilst on the roof, Naser was shot in the head from a distance of less than 40 meters by nearby Israeli soldiers.
Naser is currently in critical condition in the intensive care ward at Muqassed Hospital, after undergoing emergency surgery to remove the bullet and repair the severe damage caused to his skull and brain. He is currently breathing with the aid of a life support system. Hospital officials were not optimistic concerning his recovery.
According to a recent report published by the Israeli human rights organisation Bt'selem, "from the beginning of the intifada until the end of October 1998, at least fifty-seven Palestinians have been killed by rubber-coated steel bullets. Hundreds have been wounded. The dead include twenty-eight children under seventeen, of whom thirteen were under the age of thirteen. Since September 1993, when Israel and the PLO signed the Declaration of Principles, rubber ammunition has killed fifteen Palestinians, seven of them under the age of seventeen."
The Human Rights Action Project of Birzeit University condemns the common use of fatal rubber coated steel bullets to disperse demonstrations and calls on the Israeli authorities to prosecute soldiers who do not abide by imposed Open Fire Regulations. According to these regulations, the use of rubber coated steel bullets to disperse demonstrators is permitted from a distance of over 40 meters, aiming only at the leg area of the individual, and only after other means of crowd dispersal have proven ineffective.
For more information, please contact the Human Rights Action Project.
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Human Rights Action Project homepage - http://www.birzeit.edu/hrap/