Field Update

Two-year-old Baraka Ghassan Mohammed Baraka
al-Mughrabi, from al-Zaytoun died of wounds he sustained as a result of firing
in the funeral procession of two Palestinians who were killed in the latest
Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. This incident is part of a series of
incidents that took place, reflecting the continued misuse of weapons and other
phenomena that have risked the safety and security of the population of the
Gaza Strip for several years.

According to investigations conducted by the
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), on Saturday, 10 March 2012, the
toddler, al-Mughrabi was in his house near Saladin Mosque in al-Zaytoung
neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, when he was seriously wounded by a
bullet to the head, as the funeral procession of two Palestinians who were
killed recently in an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip included shooting into
the air.  Al-Mughrabi was transferred to
hospital, but medical efforts to save his life failed and he was pronounced
dead on Tuesday morning, 13 March 2012.

In the same context, at approximately 10:30 on
Tuesday, 13 March, Basim Mohammed al-Kurd, 44, from Beit Lahia, was wounded by
a bullet to the right leg, when he was near the house of a friend of his in the
center of Gaza City.  At the time, the
funeral of a Palestinian who was killed in the latest Israeli offensive on
Gaza, in which bullets were fired into the air, was passing by the area.

In a related context, Nader Abdul Ra’ouf Abu
Amra, 16, from Badr refugee camp in Rafah, was wounded when the police was in
an operation aimed at arresting a wanted person.  According to information available to PCHR,
the child was near his school, Kamal Odwan Secondary School for Boys in
al-Nuzha quarter in Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah, when he was wounded by
a bullet to his legs. At the time, shooting was reported while the Palestinian
police were trying to arrest a wanted person in the area.  Abu Amra said that he was 30 meters behind a
policeman when he saw this policeman firing a bullet into the air, and soon
after, he heard sounds of several bullets whose source was unknown to him, and
one of the bullets hit him.  He was
transported by a car to Martyr Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital.  Medical sources reported that Abu Amra’s
wound was moderate and that he sustained fractures to the right leg caused by
the bullet that penetrated both of his legs.

PCHR points with grave concern to the above
incidents which are the result of the continued misuse of weapons, which
constitutes a serious violation of the right to safety and security of person
which is ensured under the Palestinian laws and international human rights
instruments.  PCHR calls upon government
in Gaza and the competent authorities to search for perpetrators, to take
necessary precautions to ensure the safety of people while performing security
missions, and to take all necessary steps to ensure the non-recurrence of such
incidents.