Palestinian Child Killed in Crossfire

(September 30, 2000)

A sketch on an IDF aerial photo describing the exchange of fire at the Netzarim junction in which Mohammed Aldura, 12, was killed. The sketch marks the location of the father and son who took cover adjacent to a Palestinian shooting position at the junction. After Palestinian policemen fired from this position and around it toward an IDF position opposite, IDF soldiers returned fire toward the sources of the shooting and during the exchanges of fire the Palestinian child was apparently hit and killed. Conflicting stories have been given as to why the father and child were in the vicinity during the incident.

An IDF investigation of the incident released November 27, 2000, found that Aldura was most likely killed by a Palestinian policeman and not by IDF fire. The investigation's results are not conclusive, but "the possibility that they were shot by Palestinians is higher than that they were shot by Israelis," according to Maj.-Gen. Yomtov Samia.

Samia said the conclusions were based on an in-depth analysis of all information the IDF could gather about the incident; however, he added that a number of questions about the incident remain, including why Aldura and his father Jamal, 37, of El-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, came to the intersection when there already had been shooting there for several hours and why they did not flee, as many others did. This report was confirmed by an investigation by German ARD Television, which said the footage of Aldura's death was censored by the Palestinians to look as if he had been killed by the Israelis when, in fact, his death was caused by Palestinian gunfire.

More recently, James Fallows revisted the story and found that "the physical evidence of the shooting was in all ways inconsistent with shots coming from the IDF outpost." In addition, he cites a number of unanswered questions, which have led some to conclude the whole incident was staged. For example, Fallows asks, "Why is there no footage of the boy after he was shot? Why does he appear to move in his father's lap, and to clasp a hand over his eyes after he is supposedly dead? Why is one Palestinian policeman wearing a Secret Service-style earpiece in one ear? Why is another Palestinian man shown waving his arms and yelling at others, as if 'directing' a dramatic scene? Why does the funeral appear — based on the length of shadows — to have occurred before the apparent time of the shooting? Why is there no blood on the father's shirt just after they are shot? Why did a voice that seems to be that of the France 2 cameraman yell, in Arabic, 'The boy is dead' before he had been hit? Why do ambulances appear instantly for seemingly everyone else and not for al-Dura?"

Sources: CNN, IDF, Jerusalem Post, (November 28, 2000); JTA, (March 21, 2002); James Fallows, "Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?" Atlantic Monthly, (June 2003)