Iman Darweesh Al Hams

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Iman Darweesh Al Hams ( Arabic إيمان درويش الهمص, DMG Īmān Darwīš al-Hamṣ , also 'Iyman') (* 1991 ; † October 5, 2004 ) was a 13-year-old Palestinian woman who was killed by soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) near a military observation post on the Philadelphi Passage in Rafah in the Gaza Strip was shot.

Course of events

On the morning of October 5, 2004, 13-year-old Iman Darweesh Al Hams was on her way to school with a backpack and wearing a scarlet school uniform funded by the United Nations Relief Society. Her way led her past the Rafah refugee camp. She was discovered by the soldiers about 70 m from a checkpoint of the Israeli army. They asked her from afar to show her rucksack, as they suspected explosives were in it, and shot the girl immediately. Iman then ran - already visibly injured by the gunfire - for cover. Her backpack, which she used as a school bag, fell to the ground and was hit several times by bullets, and from this point on it was evident that there was no explosives in it. The commanding officer ordered his soldiers to advance step by step and with bursts of fire to the injured girl, since he still does not want to have been convinced that there was no explosives in the bag.

When he came to the girl himself, he kicked the body with his feet to confirm the "successful elimination of the enemy" and fired two single shots in the skull. Then he switched his weapon to continuous fire and fired the remaining contents of the magazine at the girl's already lifeless body.

When employees of the Palestinian Authority heard of what was going on in front of the refugee camp, they sent an ambulance to the scene. Israeli soldiers prevented him from going to Iman for an hour. The girl was then taken to Al-Najjar Hospital, where doctors found a total of 17 projectiles in her body and found that she was almost completely bled.

The rucksack found at the scene of the crime contained only school supplies and was literally riddled with bullets. However, the army stated that the girl's action was aimed at luring soldiers into the fire area of snipers .

Consequences for the commander

The commandant of the soldiers, whose name was only given as Captain R., was then briefly suspended because Palestinian witnesses and other soldiers had testified that the girl had been shot in the body with automatic weapons, even though she was already injured on the ground. A first internal investigation in October showed that the captain had behaved appropriately.

However, following public pressure, another investigation was carried out by the military police in November. This came to the conclusion that the first investigation had been grossly flawed and was apparently intended to cover up the matter.

Captain R. was then charged, but only with minimal offenses and not in a civil court. The case on allegations of illegal use of his weapon, an officer's unworthy conduct and obstruction of justice was dismissed by an Israeli military tribunal on November 15, 2005 before a trial was opened. Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon , then Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, said repeatedly that the officer acted appropriately under the circumstances. The officer was then promoted to major and compensated for pre-trial detention with 82,000 shekels .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The murder of a 13-year-old.
  2. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440490.stm
  3. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16886-2004Nov27?language=printer
  4. ↑ A Girl's Chilling Death in Gaza . The Washington Post on November 28, 2004, accessed January 4, 2019.
  5. ↑ http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3349472,00.html

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hams, Iman Darweesh Al
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Palestinian victim in the Middle East conflict
DATE OF BIRTH 1991
DATE OF DEATH October 5, 2004