Another name was added to the Palestinian death tally of roughly 100 children on Saturday, while the Palestinians warned of potential catastrophe if Israel does not act urgently to help bring an international peace plan to fruition.
An 11-year-old Palestinian was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers at Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, said the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
WAFA said that Khalil Mughrabi died on his way to Abu Yusef Najjar Hospital. The killing brings the child death toll of Palestinians to the brink of 100, according to Amnesty International.
Three other Palestinian children were wounded during the incident, with the Israeli army saying 26 grenades and four petrol bombs had been thrown at its positions, although it reported no casualties.
So far, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 520 Palestinians killed and over 14,000 wounded in the uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, compared to press reports of over 112 Israelis killed and over 600 wounded.
Earlier, senior Palestinian official Abu Rudeina warned of a potential "explosion" in the region, said AFP.
He accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of stalling the Mitchell peace plan and said delays were only fanning the flames of unrest as a US-sponsored ceasefire has failed to take hold on the ground.
"This policy -- and American silence in the face of Israeli aggression -- can lead to an explosion," said Abu Rudeina, calling on the United States, Russia and the European Union to force Israel to implement the peace plan.
The Palestinians say more than 30 people have been killed in direct attacks which have been criticized by US and UN officials.
Israel says the policy is needed because Palestinian Yasser Arafat refuses to rein in militants who carry out anti-Israeli violence.
For his part, Sharon has said there could be no backing down from a seven-day period of total calm, negotiated by US Secretary of State Colin Powell during his visit to the region at the end of June, before moving forward with the Mitchell plan.
The Israeli leader returned Friday from a lightning visit to Europe, where German and French leaders cautioned him not to undermine Arafat by accepting only a total end to all Palestinian attacks before moving forward with the Mitchell plan.
The prime minister downplayed the criticism, saying he had achieved his key goal of getting Europe to understand the Israeli position in the face of the ongoing violence.
"Europe is leaning a bit more toward the Israeli position because it isn't demanding that we negotiate under fire any more," said Zalman Shoval, Israel's former ambassador to Washington, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
"The Americans support the Israeli position on this question and also believe there must be a total halt to all violence," he told AFP.
The Palestinians have repeatedly insisted the week of calm is over and that it is time to go to the next phases, including a freeze on Israeli settlement building and a timetable for ending the army blockade around the Palestinian territories.
But Shoval said: "The seven-day countdown for implementing the Mitchell plan has not yet begun because the Palestinians are continuing their attacks."
Meanwhile in Damascus, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East William Burns called for maximum restraint on the Israeli-Lebanese border, in order to revive the moribund peace process.
After a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al Shara, Burns also emphasized the "commitment of the United States to reviving as quickly as possible a comprehensive process based upon UN security council resolutions 242 and 338, the principle of land for peace," said the agency.
"What is important now is for all sides to recognize the importance of reviving a political process, and in the meantime exercising maximum restraint," Burns said in response to a question on the July 1 Israeli air strike against Syrian troops in Lebanon.
He called on all parties involved to avoid "the escalation which can arise from violations of the blue line," drawn by the United Nations after the May 2000 Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
Shara called on the United States to adopt an "honest" policy towards countries in the Middle East, "applying the (UN Security Council) resolutions to all parties.”
Amnesty International reported this spring that Israeli troops had killed nearly 100 Palestinian children.
Although the Israeli military and diplomatic corps have repeatedly labeled the children a “smokescreen” for armed Palestinian adults in demonstrations, the UN commission that probed the origins of the uprising concluded that “The insistence of the [Israel Defense Forces] that the Palestinian demonstrators, humiliated by years of military occupation which has become part of their culture and upbringing, have been organized and orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority, either shows an ignorance of history or cynical disregard for the overwhelming weight of the evidence.”
NGO worker Monica Tarazi earlier told Albawaba.com that Palestinian refugee children “have never played on grass; their playgrounds are the alleyways of their refugee camps. They have witnessed their older siblings and cousins being hauled off to…prisons, not to return for months or years, and they have heard about the torture they endured there.”
Moreover, according to another NGO worker, Catherine Cook, “First, it is imperative to note, that while children do participate in demonstrations, the actual percentage of children who participate regularly is around one percent of the population, according to UNICEF."
“The phenomenon of children’s participation has been inflated and inflamed by the international media,” stated Cook, the public relations officer for Defence for Children International’s Palestine Section (DCI/PS).
“According to DCI/PS documentation, approximately 1/3 of the children killed in the first three months of the Intifada were not participating in any confrontation with Israeli military sources at the time of their death.”
“Children are not physically forced to take to the streets in protest, she told Albawaba.com. “It is the logical outcome of coupling the energy of youth with being part of an oppressed population.”
“They see their parents unemployed, family members in jail, they face travel restrictions. Going to school or work each day is often difficult. They are part of a larger community that is suffering and like most people in that community, they feel they need to do something to end the cause of that suffering.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
