Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Twilight Zone / Only twelve years old - Haaretz (Israel)
... As Yusuf made his way to the tents that day, a neighbor who passed him on the road flashed his lights, and called out: "Your daughter Hanan was wounded in the head." The road to Tze'elim is littered with yellow warning signs mounted on concrete cubes - "Danger, firing zone" - in three languages, along with the terrifying image of a skull. But on the descent from the road after the Basor wadi there are no signs, only a warning to bicycle riders coming from the north about the road.
It was about 3 P.M. last Wednesday, when Salama suddenly noticed small objects falling on the sand and kicking up little clouds of dust. Salama told her father later that she had no idea what they were; she had never seen a volley of live bullets. A few minutes later she saw her cousin Hanan slump to the ground, a hole in her head. In a panic she left everything and ran to the tent camp, about three kilometers away, to summon help.
...
The bullet entered Hanan's head from the direction of the ear and stopped at the frontal lobe, where is will probably remain for all time. Nevertheless, a miracle occurred and Hanan began to recover. "To our surprise, she is conscious, and after two days she started to talk, even though the bullet passed through the part of the brain that is responsible for speech. She has a weakness on the right side of her body, but not paralysis," says the doctor, "and that is very surprising.
...
The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] Spokesman's Unit issued the following response: "... The Bedouin tribe to which the citizen belongs knows that entry to this zone is forbidden. ..." Not a word of regret. Nor did the IDF think to send a representative to visit the girl its soldiers wounded. ...
... As Yusuf made his way to the tents that day, a neighbor who passed him on the road flashed his lights, and called out: "Your daughter Hanan was wounded in the head." The road to Tze'elim is littered with yellow warning signs mounted on concrete cubes - "Danger, firing zone" - in three languages, along with the terrifying image of a skull. But on the descent from the road after the Basor wadi there are no signs, only a warning to bicycle riders coming from the north about the road.
It was about 3 P.M. last Wednesday, when Salama suddenly noticed small objects falling on the sand and kicking up little clouds of dust. Salama told her father later that she had no idea what they were; she had never seen a volley of live bullets. A few minutes later she saw her cousin Hanan slump to the ground, a hole in her head. In a panic she left everything and ran to the tent camp, about three kilometers away, to summon help.
...
The bullet entered Hanan's head from the direction of the ear and stopped at the frontal lobe, where is will probably remain for all time. Nevertheless, a miracle occurred and Hanan began to recover. "To our surprise, she is conscious, and after two days she started to talk, even though the bullet passed through the part of the brain that is responsible for speech. She has a weakness on the right side of her body, but not paralysis," says the doctor, "and that is very surprising.
...
The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] Spokesman's Unit issued the following response: "... The Bedouin tribe to which the citizen belongs knows that entry to this zone is forbidden. ..." Not a word of regret. Nor did the IDF think to send a representative to visit the girl its soldiers wounded. ...
Labels: suffering
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