Occupied east Jerusalem – A pizza box and a ball hole. It was the only proof left on Al-Hardoub street of the horrible attack of the elite shooter on June 16 on Uday Abu Juma ‘, 21, and Iyas Abu Mufreh, 12, in the district of Jerusalem in the east of At-Tur, after the authorities swept the scene the next day.
Just before midnight, Cousins Uday and Iyas gathered with family members outside the house of their grandfather in Trur. The extended family of Abu Juma had met to celebrate the return of their grandmother of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. A family girl had also strongly marked the Palestinian “Tawjihi” national exams.
A few days earlier, the Israeli authorities had placed roadblocks on the two main entrances to the neighborhood, at the start of the 12 -day conflict with Iran on June 13. But according to family members, that night, everything was calm in the neighborhood.
Iyas and Uday were sitting near a car, eating pizza, while suddenly they and their family members were dismissed. Over 10 shots drawn, two hit Iyas and Uday, and blood overturned the pizza.
“Everyone was in shock,” recalls Nisreen Abu Mufreh, Iyas’ mother. “We didn’t know what was going on. Obviously, there was no threat to the military (from our street). ”
It is only when they examine the images of the safety camera for the neighbors of the street that they made later that two Israeli elite shooters, positioned at around 500 meters (550 meters) on a roof, had opened fire on family collection without warning.
When the family tried to precipitate the two in the hospital, Israeli police arrested the ambulance, holding Iyas’ father, Raed. Police have accused Iyas and Uday of launching Molotov cocktails and launching fireworks at the family meeting, and said the Israeli forces had opened fire in terms of self -defense.
The boys were initially taken to Al Makassed Hospital in ATR. They were then transferred to Hadassah hospital in Ein Kerem, to Western Jerusalem.
At ATR hospital, the family was again arrested by police. “How could you shoot a child like that?” A horrified asked the police. The police replied that they did not know who had shot the two boys and even tried to claim that the shooting was the result of an “internal family dispute”, according to the family.
‘He may not walk again’
The injuries to Iyas and Uday were catastrophic. The ball that struck Iyas – which is lucky to be alive, say the doctors – have barely struck centimeters from his heart, leaving a huge injury open to his left shoulder and causing significant nervous and arterial damage. Uday has been shot in the stomach, the ball coming out behind and damages its nerves, its arteries and its spine.
Iyas’ family is terrified by the fact that the boy’s arm and hand are definitively altered, while Uday does not work again.
Hospital doctors told families that Uday and Iyas had been struck by “dumdum” bullets. These are designed to develop the impact to cause maximum damage and are prohibited for war use under international law. Although Jerusalem-Est is not officially a war zone, it is under illegal Israeli occupation.
“What gives you the right to shoot a 12-year-old child, sitting with his cousin, eating pizza?” And to ensure that his cousin cannot walk in his life again? asked an Amir Amir Mufreh distraught, 21, outside the Iyas patient room. Amir spent every day and every day in the hospital with his little brother.
Amir said that his younger brother was “a good child” and “not a troublemaker”, and recalled how Iyas would help him sell corn on the street. “I am speechless. I don’t know what to say anymore. “
The day after the attacks, Israeli police came to Al-Hardoub Street and withdrew the bullets and the shots left on the scene, members of the local community said. They also swept away the broken glass of the nearby car and cleaned the blood left by the shots. Only one ball on the car and the thrown pizza box remained. “They suffered the crime scene,” said Nisreen.
According to the family and their neighbors, the police returned to the neighborhood several times in the days that followed, by surveying the situation. Curiously, they removed the concrete blocks placed at the start of the neighborhood. These obstacles had forced residents to take long detours and walk on foot to reach the neighboring Augusta Victoria hospital, another installation which is mainly aimed at local Palestinians.
“They said that the roadblocks were (installed) to control the district, given the whole war situation,” said Nisreen. “So why remove them the next day (the shooting) and act as if nothing has happened?”
“Their objective,” said Nisreen, “is to do chaos and leave.”
‘Al-Aqsa is under my full sovereignty, just as such Aviv’
The shooting of Uday Abu Juma ‘and Iyas Abu Mufreh is one of the most violent cases among a certain number of repression by the Israeli authorities of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusal, during the 12 -day war between Israel and Iran in June.
At the start of the conflict, Israeli police set up roadblocks in several districts and residents described an increase in the number of night raids in neighborhoods such as At-Tur, Issawiyeh, Kafr Aqab and Wadi al-Joz.
Mintigating police actions after the attacks of October 7, 2023 against southern Israel by Hamas, at least two residents of occupied East Jerusalem were arrested for social networks during the 12-day conflict.
Residents said phones have regularly excavated by Israeli border police deployed in East Jerusalem, and two Palestinians have been beaten for possession of content favorable to the Iranian reprisal rocket attacks against Israel, according to Rami Saleh, director of the Jerusalem branch of Jerusalem Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC).
“The aggressive approach to the police and soldiers in these entrances (from the neighborhood) is much, much heavier than usual,” said Saleh.
In addition to suddenly close the entrances to the old town of Jerusalem for almost all those who do not live there, the Israeli authorities forced most of the traders and street vendors to close their businesses in Muslim and Christian districts, citing “the security situation”.
The western wall, a sacred site for the Jews, remained open. But for almost a week, the church of the Holy Sepulcher and Haram al-Sharif, known to the Jews under the name of Mount du Temple, were closed to Christian and Muslim worshipers. These rules were slightly softened for a few days, allowing only a limited number to pray. But access to Haram Al-Sharif was again completely blocked to the faithful after the American strike on Iranian nuclear installations early on June 22, until the ceasefire of Israel with Iran.
In response, dozens of Palestinian men gathered for Friday afternoon prayers outside the walls of the old town on June 20.
The closure of Haram al -Sharif – an area containing the dome of the Rocky Mosque and Al -Aqsa, and under the only guard of Islamic Waqf Waqf – is directly in force of the arrangement between Israel and Jordan delicate site.
As a senior source of the WAQF, Tel Aviv Tribune said: “The (Israeli) occupation has closed the Al-Aqsa mosque to send a message to the Islamic world:” Al-Aqsa is under my full sovereignty, just like such Aviv. »»
Treated as a “collective threat”, not a “legitimate civilian population”
In addition to these restrictions and actions of the Israeli authorities in occupied East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Movement in the West Bank was also seriously limited during the war with Iran, most of the Palestinian crossings in closed or restricted Jerusalem, as well as numerous checkpoints in seated West Bank.
“The intensified restrictions, the raids, the arrests and the closures of religious sites are justified under a pretext of security, but, in practice, these are political tools used to remove the Palestinian presence in public space and the legitimate expression silence”, declared these policies “Israeli punisters and Bimkom in a shared declaration, qualifying these policies”.
“The Palestinian public in Jerusalem-Est is treated as a collective threat,” continued the press release, “not as a legitimate civilian population which is an integral part of the fabric of the city”.
An Israeli police spokesman did not respond to requests for comments from Tel Aviv Tribune concerning Iyas Abu Mufreh and Uday Abu Juma ‘shots, as well as questions concerning the goal and nature of Israeli restrictions and policies of East Jerusalem.
With his probable paralyzed cousin treated on another floor of the hospital, Iyas Abu Mufreh remains at Hadassah hospital, having already undergone a series of gradation surgeries hopes that it will not be permanently weakened. He had trouble eating, drinking or sleeping in the hospital, always traumatized by shots and wondering if he can never play billiards – a passion – another to his family.
“I just want to go home, be able to play with my friends and go back to school,” said Iyas from his hospital bed, surrounded by his family and friends. Screws held his arm in one piece as he nervously waited for his next operation.
“How Israel Treats (Palestinians) results from all these measures and violence,” said Aviv Tatarsky, researcher for Imm, “and (Israel) sees that no one keeps him responsible.”
