April 2006: Third Killing Operation in Bethlehem

On April 23 Israeli Special Forces carried out their third killing operation against Palestinians. They claimed that one of the men was an Aqsa Brigade activist in the Bethlehem area.

According to Ma’an News Agency, the ISF shot Ahmad Musleh, 21, a Palestinian Muslim from the Dheisheh refugee camp when he stepped out of his car near the psychiatric hospital. In the photo below you see an Israeli soldier dragging his body.

Musleh arrived dead at Beit Jala Hospital. A medical examination determined he was shot in the head and in the neck at point-blank range.

In the photo the man Israeli soldiers arrested is the late Daniel Abu Hamamah, a Palestinian Christian.

Ma’an News reports Israel soldiers dragged the injured Abu Hamamah for more than 100 meters. Sources say he was later taken to Hadassaah Hospital in Jerusalem. His death was announced after a half-hour of this photo.

Both men were unarmed. They were shot by ISF, which Palestinians call “Musta’rabeen,” or people disguised as civilian Arabs.

Hundreds of people turned out for the killed men’s funerals and several people shouted for revenge.

Sonia Nettnin is a freelance writer. Her articles and reviews demonstrate civic journalism, with a focus on international social, economic, humanitarian, gender, and political issues. Media coverage of conflicts from these perspectives develops awareness in public opinion.

She is a poet, a violinist and she studied professional dance. As a writer, the arts are an integral part of her sensibility. Her work has been published in the Palestine Chronicle, Scoop Media and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. She lives in Chicago.

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