© Murad Shteiwi
Abdul Rahman Shteiwi, 10, shot in the head by Israeli forces in Kafr Qaddum
rain or shine, against Israeli land confiscations and the closure of the village's southern road by Israeli forces. The villagers have faced their fair share of bullets, tear gas, injuries, and even death. But nothing could have prepared them for what happened on Friday, July 12, when
Israeli snipers set their sights on 10-year-old Abdul Rahman Shteiwi.
It was a normal summer Friday in the village. Following the conclusion of the afternoon prayers, residents gathered in the sweltering heat and began their march, as they always did, from the town center towards the nearby Israeli settlement of Kedumim. They carried posters and Palestinian flags, and chanted slogans demanding that the village's road be opened.
"Our protests are always non-violent. We are armed only with signs and flags," Murad Shteiwi, head of the popular resistance committee in Kafr Qaddum told Mondoweiss. "At most, sometimes the young men throw stones in response to the soldiers, but that's it. Never more than that."
It wasn't long, Shteiwi said, before the demonstration divulged into more violent confrontations, with Israeli forces firing tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound bombs into the crowd.
"But this Friday, they were using live ammunition, and they weren't just firing it in the air. They were firing it at the people," he told Mondoweiss, adding that there were Israeli snipers targeting people.
All of a sudden, the villagers saw Abdul Rahman fall to the ground, blood spilling from his head. "He wasn't even at the front of the clashes, there were tons of other young men in front of him.
But they aimed at the child on purpose and shot him," Shteiwi recounted.
Comment: See also: