More Palestinian children take up arms
AM - Tuesday, February 4, 2003 8:23
LINDA MOTTRAM: Palestinian doctors and psychologists are warning of a sharp rise in the number of children taking up arms against Israel.
In the past month, three 15-year old Palestinians were killed in what Israeli soldiers say was an attempted attack on a Jewish settlement.
Just days after that incident, settlers wounded a nine-year old Palestinian boy and his 12-year old brother, who had infiltrated the settlers' community while allegedly armed with knives.
From the West Bank refugee camp of Deheishe, Middle East Correspondent Mark Willacy reports.
MARK WILLACY: With school again cancelled because of the Israeli curfew, fourteen year old Hamad and his friends Nadal and Jihad kick a soccer ball along a street littered with rubbish and human filth. But here, the kid's heroes aren't soccer players, they're suicide bombers.
[Nadal speaking]
"The militant groups protect us, they are strong", says eleven-year old Nadal. "They're the martyrs of our country, they are really good Palestinians", he tells me. "I want to join Hamas", he adds.
Teenage suicide bombers have not been uncommon during this conflict but the arrest of a nine-year old Palestinian boy for infiltrating a Jewish settlement and allegedly trying to stab a child has shocked both sides.
[Ahmed El Hanajray speaking]
"We left the house and started walking along the road to the settlements", says Ahmed El Hanajray. We got to a settlement and a boy started shouting. His mother then started shouting. Then his father came out with the M16 and wounded my brother. We just wanted to find work at the settlement", says Ahmed.
The nine-year old was taken under armed guard to an Israeli hospital where doctors removed a bullet from his hip.
Dr. Elia Awwad is the head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society's Mental Health Department. He says army curfews, house demolitions and troop incursions are creating a generation of young Palestinian fighters.
ELIA AWWAD: All the life of those kids has been altogether a life of misery and a life of suffering and disparity and really they are angry and they feel they cannot compete with the Israeli soldier but they can do some damage to them.
MARK WILLACY: But more often than not the damage is inflicted by the soldiers.
Several weeks ago, three fifteen-year old Palestinian boys were shot dead while crossing a separation fence in the northern Gaza strip. Israel says they were trying to infiltrate a settlement to launch an attack.
"We have to throw more than rocks at soldiers", twelve-year old Mohammed from the Deheishe camp tells me. "It is good to provoke the soldiers to make them get out of here", he says.
For Hamad, Nadal and Jihad their dream is to grow up like their heroes, which means possible martyrdom, not stardom on the soccer field.
This is Mark Willacy at the Deheishe refugee camp for AM.
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