Young boy target of “Israeli” army in the occupied territories

Even armless and innocent children in the occupied Palestinian territories are the target of "Israel's" army.

According to medical officials, a young boy was shot by "Israeli" forces on his family's farm near the "Israeli" border in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday.

According to Muawiya Hassanein, the director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Abu Suleiman was shot in the spine.

Hassanein also said "Israeli" forces denied ambulances access to the area to take the child to hospital. Instead, the forces detained him for two hours, he said. "The boy was transferred to a hospital after this detention," he added.

Asked about the incident, an "Israeli" military spokeswoman claimed that during an army operation, soldiers identified a "suspicious Palestinian man" approaching the border fence, and fired warning shots in the air. After the Palestinian ignored warning shots, the spokeswoman said, the army fired at and lightly injured him.

According to the "Israeli" military, Abu Suleiman was transferred to the "Israeli" side of the border for initial medical treatment and then returned to Gaza.

The "Israeli" army maintains an "exclusion zone" of up to several hundred meters wide inside the Palestinian territory along the border. Palestinians who venture into the area are routinely shot.

Early on Sunday morning, "Israeli" warplanes launched three air strikes on tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip. These attacks on the tunnels through which Palestinians bring in goods into the Gaza Strip have become an "Israeli" routine action as well.