A recent report that was published by Haaretz’s Amira Hass  said that a large number of Palestinians are being shot around the knee by soldiers, probably leaving them disabled for life, reminded everyone of many others who had been injured in a similar way in earlier raids.

The report describes the suffering of the youths who get shot, whether it was the moments of getting shot or following that, and the physical suffering whether it be shattered bones or “lucky” hits in the muscles in several places all over the West Bank, including Deheisheh refugee camp and Al-Fawwar.

I met 12 wounded people over the course of three days. For the “lucky” ones, the bullet only hit their muscles. Others had bones shattered or nerves and tendons torn or scorched, or all of the above.

There are stories in the camp that during questioning, over the phone or during nightly visits to houses in the camp, an Israeli officer, Capt. Nidal tells young people that there will be no martyrs in the camp, but “all of you will end up on crutches.” Or, in another variation, “We’ll make you all disabled.”

In Hebron and Deheisheh, they set up committees to take care of the wounded. In many places, there’s a growing realization that the army is intensifying its use of live fire in confrontations with unarmed stone-throwers, and that the wounds inflicted are deliberately more severe. There must be more than 100 people across the West Bank, including many minors, who have been crippled by the Israeli army over the last year. But there is still no exchange of information or collation of data to confirm the seeming trend.

Source: PNN