Bethlehem - Ma'an -

Live ammunition killed two 16-year-old Palestinian boys in the northern West Bank over the weekend, despite the Israeli military's denials, medical officials and human rights advocates said Sunday.

Ussaid Qadus died of a gunshot wound to the head, medics at Nablus' Rafidiya Hospital told Ma'an, after a military incursion into his village as the army attempted to suppress a demonstration. Muhammad Qadus died of chest wounds sustained in the same incident.

According to eyewitnesses, Qadus was shot with live ammunition as soldiers invaded Iraq Burin, a village south of Nablus, after residents demonstrated to protest settler harassment and restrictions of access to their lands.

The Israeli occupation army has maintained that its forces used rubber-coated bullets to disperse a violent riot, following a Ma'an inquiry into allegations that both boys sustained injuries consistent with live ammunition.

"Contrary to what was published, live fire was not used. The Palestinians were hurt by rubber bullets used during the incident," an Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an on Saturday and reiterated on Sunday, citing an initial inquiry.

But medical findings appeared to corroborate testimony by witnesses, a senior Palestinian Authority official, and emergency responders that regardless of the circumstances, rubber-coated bullets could not have caused the injuries in question.

An X-ray of Useid's head, taken as doctors in Nablus prepared for what would be a futile emergency surgery at Rafidiya Hospital, appears to show a live bullet lodged in his skull, rather than the roundish rubber-coated bullets used by the army.

"It's very clear this isn't a rubber bullet," said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli rights advocate who co-founded Anarchists Against the Wall.

"The IDF uses two types of rubber bullets; one is shaped like a ball and the other is cylindrical," Pollak told Ma'an. "The object lodged in Useid's skull is shaped like a prism, pointed at the end. It's a bullet."

In any case, Pollak said postmortem photographs of Muhammad offered even more damning evidence of the use of live ammunition.

Pollak said the body had an entry wound in the chest and an exit wound in the back. Such an injury could not have possibly been cause by anything but live fire, he said.

"Less lethal ammunition, rubber-coated bullets included, can, under no circumstances, cause such injuries, even if shot from point blank," he said. "No rubber bullet in the world would move through a 16-year-old's torso like that."

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which first obtained the X-ray late Saturday night, concurred.

"Rubber-coated steel bullets will not enter and exit the body in that way. It's very clear these injuries would not have been caused by any kind of crowd-control measure," said B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli.

"The army's explanation is simply impossible and not consistent with the evidence," Michaeli told Ma'an.

B'Tselem plans to issue a formal request that the army's military advocate general conduct a criminal investigation into the incident, both the alleged use of live fire and the apparent distribution of false information to the relevant investigative bodies.

For its part, the Israeli military has vowed to open an internal investigation. The commander of the Shomron regional brigade, Itzik Yar, will head the effort, an army spokesman said.

In the meantime, the military is sticking to its original explanation.

"IDF soldiers arrived at the scene to prevent a clash between the Palestinian rioters and Jewish civilians, and were violently attacked by the the Palestinians, who violently hurled rocks at the force," the spokesman said.

(The Israeli racist occupiers refer to the Israeli occupation forces as IDF, i.e. Israeli defense forces, which is a misnomer reference to the army of the Apartheid, Zionist state, which kills Palestinian civilians on daily basis).

Two Palestinian Children Killed in Nablus

Sunday March 21, 2010 10:24 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian medical sources in Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, reported that two Palestinian children were killed by Israeli occupation forces fire in Iraq-Burin village, south of Nablus.

The two children were identified as Ussaid Abdul-Nasser Qadous, 16, and Ibrahim Abdul-Qader Qadous, 16.

Ussaid was shot in his abdomen during Saturday clashes with invading Israeli forces. He was admitted to surgery but died of his wounds on Sunday morning.

He bled to death despite extensive efforts to save his life and despite receiving several units of bloods.

Meanwhile, Mohammad, 16, was shot in his heart and died instantly.

Local sources reported that the clashes took place near the Bracha illegal Israeli settlement, and that both Israeli soldiers and settlers opened fire at the protestors.

A group of fundamentalist armed settlers from Yitzhar and Bracha illegal settlements attacked the village under the protection of the Israeli troops, local sources reported.