Silent sniper new tactic

RAMALLAH - The Palestinian youth, huddled with a dozen others behind a burned-out car in the middle of Ramallah's Ayosh junction, stepped out of cover with his slingshot. Instantly and silently he was felled.

When the confrontation with Israeli troops began, it had seemed to follow the ritual of such encounters. We had heard the bangs of rubber bullets and the thunderous crashes of stun grenades being fired by the Israelis at the Palestinians stoning them from the other side of the junction, followed by the sirens of the waiting ambulances taking the victims to hospital. Now, however, something new was happening.

A boy would fall to the ground, clutching his leg or his side, and the ambulance drivers would not notice until they were frantically summoned forward by other stone-throwers.

There was no sound whatever: a sniper, apparently using a silencer and firing subsonic rounds, was at work.

By mid-afternoon local time 11 youths had been taken to Ramallah Hospital, four with rubber bullet injuries and seven with wounds not seen by the doctors before. They had been hit by 22mm bullets, a calibre normally used for shooting rabbits.

This, it appears, was the result of a switch in tactics by the Israeli Army, brought about by the need to avoid a heavy death toll on the day peace talks began in Egypt.

Until yesterday most of the 100 Palestinians killed in 18 days of renewed intifada had been hit by rounds of much heavier calibre.

We caught up with the slingshot wielder at the hospital, where he was conscious but grimacing with pain from a wound in his pelvis.

An 18-year-old called Taha Afaneh, he said he had heard nothing before the bullet slammed him to the ground.

His right arm was still bandaged from a rubber bullet impact, and he proudly pulled up his grubby trouser leg to show the still-healing scabs from another rubber bullet, both injuries sustained in earlier days of the present conflict.

The Israeli forces disdain the use of riot equipment such as water cannon or Perspex shields, which might have cleared Ayosh junction without the use of bullets.

- - INDEPENDENT

Herald Online feature: Middle East

Map

Middle East Daily

Arabic News

Arabic Media Internet Network

Jerusalem Post

Israel Wire

US Department of State - Middle East Peace Process