Palestinian boy, 3, dies of injuries days after being shot by Israeli troops

By Abeer Salman and Hadas Gold, CNN

Jerusalem (CNN) — A 3-year-old Palestinian boy died Monday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, days after he was shot by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank.

Muhammad Haitham al-Tamimi died despite efforts to save him, including helicopter transport to a hospital in Israel.

He was shot on Thursday night near the Israeli settlement of Neveh Tzuf, north of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

The child’s father, Haitham Tamimi, said he was going to visit his brother when he and Muhammad were shot.

“As soon as I started the car I heard gunshots and I saw the Israeli soldiers out of the military tower,” Tamimi told CNN.

“I looked at Muhammad and couldn’t believe what I saw. He was shot in the head and there was blood all over his body. I took him in my arms and then realized that I’m also shot in my right shoulder. People from the village came quickly, and they took us both with their cars. This is when Israeli ambulances and a helicopter came and took Muhammad to the Israeli hospital.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops were firing back at gunmen shooting at Neveh Tzuf when they hit two Palestinians, a 3-year-old and a man.

IDF and Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical teams treated both of the victims, and succeeded in getting the child’s heart beating again, the MDA said at the time.

The child was then transported, ventilated and in unstable condition, by IDF helicopter to Sheba-Tel Hashomer hospital in Israel.

“The IDF regrets harm to non-combatants and is committed to doing everything in its power to prevent such incidents. The incident is under review,” the IDF said early Friday. The military did not immediately have a new statement in light of the death of the child, pointing CNN to the Friday statement.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry Monday condemned the killing of Tamimi as “a heinous crime against humanity,” and demanded “an urgent international investigation into this crime and other crimes of killing Palestinian children.”

The child’s father was treated for his gunshot wound at a hospital in Ramallah and was released on Sunday.

The bullet wound, he said, was not hurting: “I feel no physical pain. the pain in my heart is way too big.”

The-CNN-Wire
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