Palestinian children gather rubber-coated steel bullets after they have been fired by Israeli soldiers. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler / ActiveStills)
A Palestinian child from occupied East Jerusalem has lost an eye after being shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet fired by an Israeli soldier.
Yahiya al-Amudi, 10, was struck by the bullet as he walked near an Israeli military checkpoint in Shuafat refugee
camp on Thursday last week. The boy was subsequently hospitalized “with
a fractured skull, jaw and left ear and had surgery to remove his left
eye,” Ma’an News Agency reports. Al-Amudi was described as being in a critical condition.
Rubber-coated steel bullets are among Israel’s so-called arsenal of “non-lethal weapons.” The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has referred to them, however, as “less fatal” weapons.
Although Israel promotes rubber-coated and sponge-tipped bullets,
tear gas and stun grenades as “non-lethal,” they “are dangerous weapons
that can cause death, severe injury or damage to property if improperly
used,” a B’Tselem report notes.
Between 2005 and January 2013, at least ten Palestinians were killed by “less fatal” weapons, according to the group’s statistics.
Much like al-Amudi, Suliman al-Tardi, 20, also lost his eye after
Israeli forces shot him in the face with a sponge-tipped bullet last
month in the Issawiyeh neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
