Per Version: The Supposed Shooting of A Palestinian Child

A few hours go, both Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post reported the death of a 10-year-old palestinian boy in an exchange of fire between Hamas terrorists and IDF troops in the central Gaza town of Deir el-Balah, based on the testimony of palestinian medics. Ha’aretz subsequently changed his age to 7.

But leaving aside this age discrepancy, the really curious thing was when I checked the palestinian news outlets such as Ma’an, Ramattan, and WAFA, there were no reports of a child being killed. In fact, Ma’an reported that a child – presumably the same one – had been seriously injured east of Deir Al-Balah after being “hit by a stray gunshot.” And at the time of this post, this is still what Ma’an is reporting.

In the meantime, Ramattan are now reporting the death of a 7-year-old child called Mohammed Abu Al-Sha’ar, killed in Deir Al-Balah after “having been shot in the head,”while WAFA is reporting that 10-year-old Tamer Abu Sha’ar was killed in Khan Younis, after being “hit in the head by an Israeli sniper who took position in high building.”

So once again, we have different versions of the same supposed event. I have summarized the different versions in this table, which include other discrepancies in addition to those I have already mentioned:

  Ha’aretz JPost Ma’an WAFA Ramattan
Age of child 7 10 Not mentioned 10 7
Name of child Not mentioned Not mentioned Tamir Abu Sha’ar Tamer Abu Sha’ar Mohammed Abu Al-Sha’ar
Current state of child Dead Dead Seriously injured Dead Dead
Location of shooting Deir el-Balah Deir el-Balah East of Deir Al-Balah Khan Younis Deir Al-Balah
How shot Caught in crossfire Caught in crossfire By stray gunshot Shot and hit in the head by an Israeli sniper who took position in a high building Shot in head
Others wounded 2 children, same place 2 minors, same place 2 others, in Abasan, near Khan Younis “Two others”, same place “Several others”, same place

As always, it seems interesting to me that something as straightforward as the killing of a palestinian child should be reported so differently, based on information from palestinian sources. Interesting, but hardly surprising.

My conclusion remains the same: the palestinians are lying about it, and the discrepancies result from the fact that the different palestinian sources did not take the time to fully synchronize their stories.

6 thoughts on “Per Version: The Supposed Shooting of A Palestinian Child”

  1. Sorry:

    “something as straightforward as the killing of a palestinian child”

    is just not a phrase which I can read without wincing. With the best will in the world and all understanding of how it isn’t our fault, this is still a tragedy, not something to be talked about in a flippant manner.

  2. Kibi,

    You are way off the mark, and in fact read it in exactly the opposite way to which it was intended. The point is that you would expect something like the killing of a child to be reported consistently.

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