Field
Update

Yesterday,
three children were injured in Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah were injured
by shrapnel and sustained burns throughout their bodies due to the explosion of
a suspicious object in a landfill of wastes.

According
to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR),
at approximately 14:30 on Monday, 19 December 2011, three children were
admitted into Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, as they sustained burns
throughout their bodies.  They are:
Yousef Abdullah Tafesh, 14; Mohammed Abdullah Tafesh, 17; and Ibrahim Imad Abu
Suhaiban, 17.  The children were
transferred to the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis, because they were
moderately injured in the head and the face.

The
Palestinian police sources mentioned that the three children were playing with
an object in a landfill of wastes that is located behind the Directorate of
Social Affairs in Tal al-Sultan neighborhood. 
The children were collecting metal and plastic materials from the
landfill to sell them.  The police
sources stressed to PCHR that the exploded object was a part of an RPG.

It
should be noted that this incident is the second of its kind in two days.  On the day before yesterday, a Palestinian
and his two sons were injured by shrapnel throughout their bodies in Khuza’a
village, east of Khan Yunis, due to an explosion of a suspicious object, as
they were collecting iron and scraps to sell them.

PCHR
is extremely concerned over the recurrence of such incidents and calls upon the
competent bodies to set rules to ensure the non-recurrence of such incidents
and to offer protection to civilians.