Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
5 October
OFFICER ORDERS KILLING OF THREE-YEAR-OLDS
On this day in 2004, Iman Al Hams was executed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. A recording of radio exchanges between soldiers involved in the killing shows that Iman was identified as “a child of about ten...scared to death” before they shot her. An Israeli officer then emptied his magazine into the child’s body and said he would have killed her if she had been three years old. The killer was put through a perfunctory trial and then awarded 300,000 shekels compensation for the trauma suffered by being charged.
ضابط يأمر بقتل طفلة عمرها ثلاث سنوات
5 أكتوبر
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام ٢٠٠٤، أعدم جنود إسرائيليون إيمان الهمص في غزة. أظهر تسجيل المكالمات اللاسلكية المتبادلة بين الجنود المتورطين في القتل أنه تم التعرف على إيمان بأنها "طفلة في العاشرة من عمرها ... خائفة حتى الموت" قبل أن يطلقوا النار عليها. ثم أفرغ ضابط إسرائيلي عبوة الرصاص في جسد الطفلة وقال إنه كان سيقتلها حتى لو كانت في الثالثة من عمرها. خضع القاتل لمحاكمة روتينية وتم منحه٣٠٠,٠٠٠ شيكل تعويض عن الصدمة التي تعرض لها من الاتهام.
The killer of 13-year old Iman Al Hams has received 80,000 NIS (about $15,000) compensation for the ‘trouble’ of having gone to court. Iman was shot by more than 23 bullets near the Girit Israeli military military outpost in Rafah, in October 2004. The soldier who fired at her, and completed the ‘confirm kill’ procedure by firing at her dead body, was not only acquitted of all charges, but recently received a promotion to the rank of major. The soldier, identified as captain “R”, who repeatedly fired at the child, is a Druze captain in the Israeli army.
Not guilty. The Israeli captain who emptied his rifle into a Palestinian schoolgirl
· Officer ignored warnings that teenager was terrified
· Defence says 'confirming the kill' standard practice
An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.
The soldier, who has only been identified as "Captain R", was charged with relatively minor offences for the killing of Iman al-Hams who was shot 17 times as she ventured near an Israeli army post near Rafah refugee camp in Gaza a year ago.
The manner of Iman's killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was "scared to death", made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died.
After the verdict, Iman's father, Samir al-Hams, said the army never intended to hold the soldier accountable. "They did not charge him with Iman's murder, only with small offences, and now they say he is innocent of those even though he shot my daughter so many times," he said. "This was the cold-blooded murder of a girl. The soldier murdered her once and the court has murdered her again. What is the message? They are telling their soldiers to kill Palestinian children."
The military court cleared the soldier of illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer...Capt R's lawyers argued that the "confirmation of the kill" after a suspect is shot was a standard Israeli military practice...A recording of radio exchanges between Capt R and his troops obtained by Israeli television revealed that from the beginning soldiers identified Iman as a child.
In the recording, a soldier in a watchtower radioed a colleague in the army post's operations room and describes Iman as "a little girl" who was "scared to death". After soldiers first opened fire, she dropped her schoolbag which was then hit by several bullets establishing that it did not contain explosive. At that point she was no longer carrying the bag and, the tape revealed, was heading away from the army post when she was shot...
The army's initial investigation concluded that the captain had "not acted unethically". But after some of the soldiers under his command went to the Israeli press to give a different version, the military police launched a separate investigation after which he was charged. Capt R claimed that the soldiers under his command were out to get him because they are Jewish and he is Druze.
The transcript
The following is a recording of a three-way conversation that took place between a soldier in a watchtower, an army operations room and Capt R, who shot the girl:
From the operations room "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?"
Watchtower "A girl about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."
(A few minutes later, Iman is shot from one of the army posts)
Watchtower "I think that one of the positions took her out."
Captain R "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."
Capt R "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over."