For 2 weeks, Palestinian mom Basma Aweidat was in mourning after receiving information that her son had been shot useless by Israeli forces within the occupied West Financial institution.
Then she acquired a telephone name, telling her that whereas 28-year-old Thayer had certainly been shot, he was alive and being handled at a hospital in Israel.
“I could not consider what they have been telling me,” she mentioned.
As violence surges within the Israeli-Palestinian battle within the West Financial institution, the place greater than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces previously yr, such tales of muddled identities are uncommon however not distinctive.
In Thayer Aweidat’s case, the Israeli military launched a February 6 raid on the entrance to the Aqabet Jaber refugee camp close to Jericho, trying to find suspects accused of finishing up an assault towards Israelis.
The military mentioned it killed 5 “terrorists”, and an Israeli safety official advised the Agence France-Presse information company that the army was holding the our bodies of the useless Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority, which mentioned it had been knowledgeable by Israeli authorities, introduced that Thayer Aweidat, a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian motion Hamas, was among the many useless.
His {photograph} was printed on posters plastered on the partitions of the refugee camp, becoming a member of different Palestinian “martyrs”, and messages of condolences flooded in.
shock
Then Basma Aweidat’s telephone rang.
It got here from a cousin of hers, the mom of Alaa Aweidat, a younger man who was reportedly wounded in the identical raid and who had been taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital.
Besides that when she visited the hospital, she realized in shock that the wounded man was not her youngster. It was Thayer Aweidat. He was in a critical situation and in a coma.
“I could not consider he was nonetheless alive,” mentioned Basma, who utilized for an Israeli allow to go to him.
“I noticed him, his head bandaged and his physique with a number of wounds,” she mentioned. “I attempted to talk to him, however he did not reply.”
Again house in Aqabet Jaber, the identical neighbors who days earlier than had supplied condolences returned.
“The ladies within the camp began coming to congratulate me as a result of my son is alive, a number of days after coming to mourn,” Basma Aweidat mentioned.
Her husband, Khaled Aweidat, has not obtained permission to go to his son.
“From what my spouse tells me, he’s in critical situation and his dying could possibly be introduced at any time,” he mentioned.
As for Alaa Aweidat, his destiny is unknown.
A relative advised the household he noticed him on board an Israeli ambulance and alive on February 6 after the preventing within the camp. However they’ve heard no phrase of him since.
The military would verify solely that that they had 5 our bodies from the February 6 raid.
Requested a few attainable mistake, neither the military, police nor the Israeli protection ministry physique accountable for civil affairs within the Palestinian territories would make clear the explanation for the confusion.
The Palestinian Authority didn’t specify who from Israel submits the names of Palestinians killed throughout military operations.
‘Like numbers’
However this isn’t the one case just like the Aweidats.
In October, an identical story unfolded within the Jalazone refugee camp close to Ramallah, additionally within the West Financial institution.
The Basbous household mourned the dying of their son Basel for 2 days after Palestinian officers advised them he had been shot and killed by the israeli military close to Ramallah whereas driving with two different individuals, who additionally died.
However he was not useless.
“I used to be unconscious, and I wakened two days later in hospital with my legs and my fingers shackled,” Basel Basbous mentioned.
The household obtained a name from a good friend, who had a relative working on the Israeli Shaare Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem.
“She known as me to inform me … Basel was nonetheless alive,” mentioned his mom, Ataf Basbous.
The hospital mentioned in a press release: “As a result of nature of his situation, it seems that some confusion ensued relating to his id previous to admission for remedy.”
Ataf Basbous mentioned, “Israelis deal with us like numbers. They do not care about households. My son is shot, and he stays in hospital for 18 days earlier than being launched, however nobody cares when he has carried out nothing.”
Basel Basbous remains to be receiving remedy for accidents to his leg and hand in hospital in Ramallah.
First known as the “heroic martyr”, like all Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, he has since turn out to be generally known as “the dwelling martyr”.
