Standing at the spot where the shooting took place, Ibrahim Halhouli, a 16-year-old cousin of the slain boy, said they now all steer clear of the alleyway.”We are scared,” he said, looking up at the watchtower.Shuafat, home to some 60,000 Palestinians, has long been a flashpoint.It is a poor, densely packed neighborhood that lacks municipal services despite falling within Jerusalem’s city borders. It is the only Palestinian refugee camp in Jerusalem, and a number of militants involved in attacks on Israelis have come from the area. It is segmented from the rest of Jerusalem by a heavily manned checkpoint and Israeli forces regularly raid the camp to arrest suspected militants.After the shooting, Ali Halhouli said his other sons took the body to a medical center in Shuafat where staff pronounced him dead. In desperation, the family found an ambulance to transport him to Hadassah hospital, one of Israel’s largest medical facilities, where doctors said the bullet had struck his heart.”The boy is dead, you brought him dead,” Ali Halhouli said, recounting one of the doctor’s words. Soon after, a police officer arrived at the ward and said they needed to transfer the body to an Israeli forensic institute for an autopsy.Ali Halhouli, 61, said he was left in limbo for days, contacted three times by different police officers, each of whom told him his son’s corpse would soon be returned.On one occasion he was told he must keep the funeral to fewer than 40 people or face a fine. Funerals of slain Palestinians often escalate into violent protests. The body was eventually handed back to the family overnight Sunday and buried the next morning, he said.Makhash, the Israeli Justice Ministry body that investigates police conduct, told the AP that the investigation into the officer who shot the boy is ongoing.On-duty police officers and soldiers are rarely prosecuted for killing Palestinians. According to Israeli legal rights group Yesh Din, a police officer was last charged of murder in 2021 after shooting dead an unarmed autistic Palestinian in Jerusalem’s Old City. The officer was later acquitted in 2023, it said.The day after Rami Halhouli died, a provocative, high-ranking Israeli official who oversees the police said the officer who shot him should be commended, not investigated. Itamar Ben Gvir, the ultra-nationalist minister for national security, also called the boy a terrorist, without offering any evidence.”A 12-year-old boy a terrorist?” Ali Halhouli said, clearly hurt by the remark.
Source link
