TEL AVIV - The Israeli Army says its inquiry into the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy that shocked the world showed it was possible he was killed by Palestinian and not Israeli bullets.
But Palestinian officials say Israeli fire killed Mohammad al-Durra, whose death captured on television became a symbol of martyrdom for the uprising against Israeli occupation in which at least 281 people, most of them Palestinians, have died.
"Our comprehensive investigation conducted in the last few weeks cast a serious doubt that the boy, Mohammad al-Durra, was hit by IDF [Israeli Army] fire," the head of the southern command, Yom Tov Samia, told a news conference.
"There is quite a possibility that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets in the course of the exchange of fire that took place in the area, especially from the back."
Television footage broadcast across the world showed Durra and his father cowering behind a concrete cylinder against a wall in the midst of a gun battle.
The boy was shot and slumped in the lap of his badly wounded father.
An Army statement said the Israeli post involved in the September 30 gun battle in the Gaza Strip, was under fire from at least nine directions.
Major General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, chief of Palestinian public security, said the Palestinians' investigation ruled out the possibility that Durra was shot from behind.
"After a thorough investigation ... it was very clear that bullets had been fired from the Israeli Army post and that an Israeli soldier had killed the innocent child," he said.
Samia said the bullet-riddled wall and cylinder where the Durras had taken cover were "unintentionally destroyed" on October 7 when the Israeli Army knocked down structures from where the post had come under fire.
- REUTERS
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