© @SadaeMazlomeenQais Abu Rmaileh was found dead in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
UPDATE: 26/01/2019Despite reports and his family's initial fears that he might have been kidnapped by Israeli settlers, as happened to Abu Khdair years ago, police confirmed that Qais Abu Rmaileh drowned in an open cistern.
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An eight-year-old Palestinian boy who went missing in East Jerusalem Friday afternoon was found dead at the bottom of a cistern filled with rainwater after long hours of search efforts Saturday
Qais Abu Rmaileh was found in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina and was immediately taken to Hadassah hospital, where lifesaving attempts were unsuccessful.
The
Jerusalem Post initially cited Israeli police as saying that the youngster "was last seen entering a car." The family is now asking that security footage from the area be released.
"If it turns out he was kidnapped by [West Bank] settlers it would set the entire neighborhood on fire," the boy's parents said.
The Governor of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith held the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for his death, stressing that the authorities should have sealed the open water ditches to prevent children's access to them.While Knesset's MP Ahmad Tibi, from the Arab Movement for Change party, told Israel's Ynet news website that "things are worrisome" and he hopes "that all doubts will be proven false."
However, the accusations of Israeli settlers being involved in the boy's disappearance and death are not unfounded, as in the past the illegal occupiers have killed and injured Palestinians, including children.
In July 2014, a Palestinian teenager named Mohammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and killed after being burned by three Israeli settlers.
Comment: Quds Network
interviewed a diver, Khaled Olayyan, involved in the search for Qais Abu Rmaileh
"I heard that there was a child from Jerusalem, who had been kidnapped or lost since the afternoon and had not come back home until late at night. So, the search operations took off but that was in vain", said Khaled Olayyan.
Diver Khaled Olayyan searches the culvert for a missing Palestinian boy, later found drowned.
The Palestinian former prisoner, Khaled Olayyan, told QNN that he went out with a group of young men from Jabal Al Mukabbir in southern Jerusalem at 9:00 pm towards Beit Hanina, where hundreds of Palestinians gathered to put a search plan, which may save the life of the then lost 8-year-old boy Qais Abu Rmeileh.
After several hours of search, the locals decided to empty a box culvert of rainwater using a vehicle owned by the Israeli rescue unit. At the same time, the locals found another box culvert and rushed to search for the boy inside it.
The Israeli police accompanied the locals but refused to cooperate or help them. It refused even to provide adequate lighting to help search for the boy. An Israeli lifeguard refused to dive inside the box culvert, claiming that "the water was too cold".
Although of the weather temperature, which approached freezing yesterday, Olayyan "removed his clothes and kept with others to search for the boy for half an hour".
After he and other young men left the water, everyone started to warm them. After an hour, their body temperature decreased and a medical intervention became necessary.
Olayyan stressed that the Israeli police did not cooperate with the Palestinians at all. It even started attacking the locals, who were searching for the boy, without providing any reasons. Stun and poisonous grenades in addition to Paton and rubber-coated metal bullets were used against the locals as if it was a confrontation, not a rescue operation
Quds Network also
reported:
The body of Qais Abu Rmeileh was found inside a box culvert, in which he seemingly fell. Medical teams tried to revive him but he was already dead.
The Palestinian Red Crescent stated that its teams have dealt with nearly 19 injuries among locals, who were attacked by the Israelis during the search operations.
Two divers and three others were wounded as well due to the very cold water.
The National Social Movement held the occupation authorities responsible for the tragic incident because they left a dangerous watershed in a very vital area, which includes schools, markets, and playgrounds, untreated and uncovered without even warning locals.
"If the residents were Jewish, there would have been no such negligence", the statement added.
Comment: Quds Network interviewed a diver, Khaled Olayyan, involved in the search for Qais Abu Rmaileh Quds Network also reported: