A boy and a girl, both 15-years old, live in a refugee camp – 23,500 people in 0.5 sq.km.
They are Palestinians, hence transparent. Tagged generally as terrorists/collateral damage/mistaken identities. But they had lives, wishes, fears, families, friends. Until a well-targeted bullet to the belly or heart or head cut all of these off.
Monday, Jenin refugee camp, 5 a.m. Special Israeli forces raid the camp. The mission is to arrest/execute wanted persons. They raid a home and arrest the father for questioning. Next to him stands his pregnant wife, and their 4- and 6-years old children, scared and crying in face of the soldiers’ shouts and guns.
Dozens of army vehicles and a helicopter join the soldiers. The sirens in the camp are operated. Frightened are escaping their homes. Shots are fired at ambulances as they evacuate people – there are 100 wounded, among them a journalist shot in the belly.
5 people are dead, and another woman dying of her wounds two days later. The western part of the camp becomes an inferno of fire and blood.
Ahmad Yousef Saqer أحمد يوسف صقر
15-years old
Design: Lahav Halevy
It is 8 a.m. 3 hours into the shooting. Ahmad stands with a group of boys, throwing stones. The Israeli army forces are 200 meters away. Far from the range of danger. An armored car, a soldier firing one bullet at the boy’s belly through a narrow firing slit. Shooting to kill or cause serious wounding. The boy falls to the ground. Help is hindered. He is taken to the hospital. Dead. One bullet. Straight into his belly.
Sadil Naghnaghia سديل غسان تركمان
15-years old
Design: Lahav Halevy
Clashes did not take place at the entrance of her home. Sirens were heard everywhere. Her father says: “For the past two years, the situation has become really scary. The children speak of raids and of death more than about anything else.”
Sadil speaks with her cousins through the window. Her father distances her from there, fearing sniper fire. “I told her not to stand near windows. I turned around and took two steps into the home. Then my younger son said: ‘Sadil has fallen down’. Sadil opened the door to take photos of the soldiers leaving the camp. She loved taking photos and documenting.” A soldier, out of an armored car, where no clashes are taking place, decides to shoot at unarmed Sadil. One bullet. To the head. She falls to the ground.
“I rushed to her. She was bleeding. A bullet to the face. I lifted her, gave her to the ambulance. I was worried that children would be hurt when going out to the street, so I waited until others would come to keep an eye on them. I reached her half an hour later. She was no longer breathing. She underwent life-sustaining procedures, but her brain was hurt for lack of oxygen… She died two days later.
“Israeli soldiers who shoot live bullets at civilians mean to kill as many as possible. Israel wishes to punish the entire camp, because its residents to have fighters there.”
Sadil completed 8 years in the UNWRA school at the camp. She was already active in the Freedom Theatre from a young age. She loved to help the smaller children blend in the Theatre’s activities. She loved singing, studying. She grew up in the Theatre, that’s where she was educated.
15-years old, a bullet in the head, for taking photos.
Sources: Haaretz, Local Call, DCI-P, MEMC.
Posters design: Lahav Halevy.