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The main body of evidence supporting this claim comes
from the testimony of Talal
abu Rahma and Jamal
al-Durah, given at several distinct instances.
Specifically, Talal points out that the Israelis were
shooting
at the boy and father for 45 minutes. He also asserts
that the Israelis saw the boy and the father and continued
to shoot
at them regardless. Talal has reiterated this position
in interviews with the BBC,
German filmmaker Ester
Schapira, Israeli
TV and National
Public Radio. In his first formal statement under
oath he claimed that the
child was intentionally and in cold blood shot dead and
his father injured by the Israeli army.
Jamal al-Durrah, the father of Mohammed, has supported
this position in his many statements
and interviews
where he says that the Israeli soldiers saw and fired
upon him and Mohammed repeatedly, even after he begged
them to stop. Jamal has said that he was hit by eight
bullets and Mohammed
by four.
Palestinian officials, such as the doctor who examined
Mohammed's
body and the general who performed
the investigation, also concur on the identity and
motive of the guilty party.
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1. All the evidence here is eye-witness testimony to
events "under fire." They concern not observations but
judgments that go to motive. None of the available evidence
supports such an accusation.
- The firing during the time when we can locate the
father and son behind the barrel is limited and, judging
from the behavior of some Palestinians
and photographers who appear to know and do not
take cover, the fire is Palestinian and possibly in
the air.
- Only one shot of the Israeli post shows a bullet fired
from that position, which does not exclude firing, but
hardly supports Talal's claims.
- No shot of the boy and the father behind the barrel
indicates a bullet hitting
the wall coming from the Israeli position.
2. No Israeli bullets recovered
- Either at the site
- Or from the bodies of Jamal (8 reported bullet wounds)
or Muhamed (3 reported bullet wounds).
- Talal, when questioned by Esther Schapira, makes claims
he cannot sustain.
3. Distance from Israelis to Barrel
Talal has said that the army outpost was anywhere from
150
to 300
meters away from Jamal and Mohammed. From the vantage
point of the father and son, it would be impossible to
see the soldiers in the tower with the naked eye; so that
Jamal's claim that he begged them to stop hardly means
that they received the message. That Jamal could effectively
beg
them to stop shooting amid an allegedly deafening
hail of bullets - Talal: I
never saw shooting like that in my life," from a distance
of two or three football fields is impossible.
4. Motive: Why murder a 12 year old boy?
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