Occupied East Jerusalem – A pizza field and a bullet gap. That was the one proof left on al-Hardoub Road of the ugly June 16 sniper assault on Uday Abu Juma’, 21, and Iyas Abu Mufreh, 12, within the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of at-Tur, after authorities swept the scene the next day.
Simply earlier than midnight, cousins Uday and Iyas had gathered with relations exterior their grandfather’s house in at-Tur. The Abu Juma’ prolonged household had come collectively to have a good time their grandmother’s return from the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. A daughter within the household had additionally scored extremely on the Palestinian nationwide “tawjihi” exams.
Days earlier than, Israeli authorities had positioned roadblocks on the 2 most important entrances into the neighbourhood, in the beginning of the 12-day battle with Iran on June 13. However based on relations, that evening, all was quiet within the neighbourhood.
Iyas and Uday had been sitting close to a automotive, consuming pizza, when abruptly, they and their relations had been fired on. Of 10 pictures fired, two struck Iyas and Uday, and blood spilled over the pizza.
“Everybody was in shock,” recalled Nisreen Abu Mufreh, Iyas’s mom. “We didn’t know what was occurring. Clearly, there weren’t any threats in the direction of the navy [from our street].”
Solely when reviewing neighbours’ safety digicam footage of the road did they later realise that two Israeli snipers, positioned about 500 metres (550 yards) away on a rooftop, had opened fireplace on the household gathering with out warning.
When the household tried to hurry the 2 to the hospital, Israeli police stopped the ambulance, detaining Iyas’s father, Raed. The police accused Iyas and Uday of throwing Molotov cocktails and launching fireworks in the course of the household gathering, and claimed that Israeli forces had opened fireplace in self-defence.
The boys had been initially taken to Al Makassed Hospital in at-Tur. They had been later transferred to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, West Jerusalem.
On the hospital in at-Tur, the household was once more stopped by the police. “How may you shoot a child like this?” a horrified Nisreen requested the police. The police responded that they didn’t know who shot the 2 boys, and even tried to say that the capturing was the results of an “inner household dispute”, based on the household.
‘He could not stroll once more’
The accidents to Iyas and Uday had been catastrophic. The bullet that hit Iyas – who’s fortunate to be alive, medical doctors say – struck simply centimetres from his coronary heart, leaving an enormous open wound on his left shoulder and inflicting vital nerve and artery injury. Uday was shot within the abdomen, with the bullet popping out by way of his again and damaging his nerves, arteries and backbone.
Iyas’s household is terrified that the boy’s arm and hand can be completely impaired, whereas Uday could not stroll once more.
Medical doctors on the hospital instructed the households that Uday and Iyas had been struck by “dumdum” bullets. These are designed to broaden on influence to trigger most injury, and are banned to be used in struggle below worldwide regulation. Whereas East Jerusalem just isn’t formally a struggle zone, it’s below unlawful Israeli occupation.
“What provides you the precise to shoot a 12-year-old child, sitting together with his cousin, consuming pizza? And to make it in order that his cousin just isn’t capable of stroll once more in his life?” requested a distraught Amir Abu Mufreh, 21, exterior Iyas’s affected person room. Amir has spent daily and evening within the hospital together with his little brother.
Amir mentioned his youngest brother was “ child” and “not a troublemaker”, and recalled how Iyas would assist him promote corn on the road. “I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say any extra.”
The day after the assaults, Israeli police got here to al-Hardoub Road and eliminated the bullets and bullet casings left behind on the scene, members of the local people mentioned. In addition they took away damaged glass from the automotive they had been close to, and cleaned away the blood left by the shootings. Solely a single bullet gap on the automotive and the discarded pizza field remained. “They wiped the crime scene clear,” remarked Nisreen.
In response to the household and their neighbours, police returned to the neighbourhood a number of instances within the days that adopted, surveying the state of affairs. Curiously sufficient, they eliminated the concrete blocks positioned on the neighbourhood’s entrances. These roadblocks had compelled locals to take lengthy detours and stroll on foot to succeed in the close by Augusta Victoria Hospital, one other facility that caters primarily to native Palestinians.
“They claimed the roadblocks had been [installed] to regulate the neighbourhood, contemplating the entire struggle state of affairs,” mentioned Nisreen. “So why take away them the day after [the shooting] and act like nothing occurred?
“Their objective,” mentioned Nisreen, “is to make chaos and go away.”
‘Al-Aqsa is below my full sovereignty, similar to Tel Aviv’
The capturing of Uday Abu Juma’ and Iyas Abu Mufreh is among the extra violent circumstances amongst numerous crackdowns by Israeli authorities on East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents, in the course of the 12-day struggle between Israel and Iran in June.
Initially of the battle, Israeli police put up roadblocks in a number of neighbourhoods and residents described an increase within the variety of nightly raids in neighbourhoods similar to At-Tur, Issawiyeh, Kafr Aqab and Wadi al-Joz.
Mirroring police actions following the October 7, 2023 assaults on southern Israel by Hamas, a minimum of two residents in occupied East Jerusalem had been arrested over social media posts in the course of the 12-day battle.
Locals reported having their telephones recurrently searched by Israeli border police deployed to East Jerusalem, and two Palestinians had been allegedly overwhelmed for possessing content material on their telephones supportive of Iran’s retaliatory rocket assaults on Israel, based on Rami Saleh, director of the Jerusalem department of the Jerusalem Authorized Support and Human Rights Middle (JLAC).
“The aggressive method of police and troopers in these [neighbourhood] entrances is way, a lot heavier than standard,” mentioned Saleh.
In addition to abruptly closing entrances to the Outdated Metropolis of Jerusalem for almost everybody who didn’t reside there, the Israeli authorities compelled most shopkeepers and avenue distributors to shut their companies within the Muslim and Christian Quarters, citing “the safety state of affairs”.
The Western Wall, a holy website for Jews, remained open. However for almost per week, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Haram al-Sharif, recognized to Jews because the Temple Mount, had been closed off to Christian and Muslim worshippers. These guidelines had been relaxed barely for a few days, permitting solely a restricted quantity to hope. However entry to Haram al-Sharif was fully blocked once more to worshippers following the US strike on Iranian nuclear amenities early on June 22, till after Israel’s ceasefire with Iran.
In response, dozens of Palestinian males gathered for Friday afternoon prayers exterior the partitions of the Outdated Metropolis on June 20.
The closure of Haram Al-Sharif – an space containing the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and below the only custodianship of the Jordanian-operated Islamic Waqf – is in direct contravention of the association between Israel and Jordan, following a series of attempts by the Israeli authorities and political figures to infringe on the Waqf’s sovereignty over the religiously and politically delicate website.
As a senior supply from the Waqf instructed Al Jazeera: “The [Israeli] occupation closed Al-Aqsa Mosque to ship a message to the Islamic world: ‘Al-Aqsa is below my full sovereignty, similar to Tel Aviv.’”
Handled as a ‘collective risk’, not a ‘reputable civilian inhabitants’
Alongside these restrictions and actions by the Israeli authorities in occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian motion within the West Financial institution was additionally severely curtailed in the course of the struggle with Iran, with most Palestinian crossings into Jerusalem closed or restricted, together with many checkpoints within the besieged West Financial institution.
“The intensified restrictions, raids, arrests and spiritual website closures are justified below a safety pretext however, in apply, these are political instruments used to suppress Palestinian presence in public area and silence reputable expression,” mentioned the Israeli NGOs Ir Amim and Bimkom in a shared assertion, calling these insurance policies “unjustified collective punishment”.
“The Palestinian public in East Jerusalem is handled as a collective risk,” the assertion continued, “not as a reputable civilian inhabitants that’s an integral a part of the town’s material.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli police didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s requests for remark relating to the shootings of Iyas Abu Mufreh and Uday Abu Juma’, in addition to questions relating to the aim and nature of the East Jerusalem restrictions and insurance policies by Israeli authorities in the course of the struggle with Iran.
Along with his seemingly paralysed cousin being handled on one other flooring of the hospital, Iyas Abu Mufreh stays in Hadassah Hospital, having already undergone a collection of surgical procedures in dimming hopes that he is not going to be completely impaired. He has struggled to eat, drink or sleep on the hospital, nonetheless traumatised by the capturing and questioning if he’ll ever be capable to play pool – a ardour of his – once more, based on his household.
“I simply need to return house, to have the ability to play with my associates and to return to highschool,” mentioned Iyas from his hospital mattress, surrounded by his household and associates. Screws had been holding his arm in a single piece as he nervously awaited his subsequent surgical procedure.
“How Israel offers with [Palestinians] is thru all these measures and violence,” mentioned Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher for Ir Amim, “and [Israel] sees that nobody is holding it accountable.”