Mideast - AFP
Palestinian boy killed in West Bank clashes
Date: Sat Mar 27, 6:33 AM ET
NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) - A six-year-old Palestinian boy was killed during clashes in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, with the Palestinians blaming the Israeli army despite strong denials from a local commander.
Khaled Walaweel was brought to Nablus's hospital in a critical condition following a bullet wound to his neck, which his uncle said he sustained in an upstairs room of the family home in the city's Balata refugee camp.
Palestinian security sources and an eye-witness from the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement were adamant that the bullet was Israeli.
"I was 50 metres (yards) from the jeep when the soldiers opened fire without any provocation," said ISM photographer Omar Tibi.
But Israeli commander for the sector, Lieutenant Colonel Hazut Gai insisted there had been no live fire from his troops and that the boy's death must have been the result of a stray bullet from a Palestinian gunman.
"The boy's death happened right at the end of the operation," the colonel said.
"A Palestinian emerged from an alleyway and fired a very inaccurate burst of fire towards us before fleeing.
"A few minutes later we heard screams from a house behind us which had apparently been hit and we saw a man carrying his son.
"We offered to take him to an Israeli hospital but he refused."
Both sides agreed that the trouble broke out after two companies of Israeli troops entered the camp on a search operation for wanted Palestinian militants and were met by stone throwing youths.
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