The child martyr, Ruqaya Ahmed Odeh Jahalin (social networking sites)
Ruqaya Ahmed Odeh Jahalin, a Palestinian girl from the village of Beit Iksa in the occupied West Bank, was supposed to celebrate her fifth birthday two days ago, but the bullets of the occupation forces prevented her from doing so about a month ago, as an Israeli soldiers’ bullet pierced her young body at a checkpoint at the entrance to her village.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz talked about the story of the killing of the child Ruqaya in a lengthy report by writers Gideon Levy and Alex Levak, in which they highlighted that despite a month having passed since her killing, her story still angers everyone.
The report stated that Ruqayya was returning with her mother and siblings in a taxi to their village in Beit Iksa. Then, the occupation soldiers soon fired a volley of bullets at them, one of which pierced her small body, and she was the only victim who was killed inside the car.
Haaretz added that the Israeli forces took Ruqaya's body out of the car and left her lying on the side of the road for 6 hours without even allowing her parents to approach her. Then they took the body and did not return it to the family until 10 days later.
The newspaper commented on this by saying that what happened gives an idea of the way Israel deals with the Palestinians.
In its explanation of what happened, Haaretz said that during the search of the taxi in which Ruqayya was traveling with her mother and siblings, random gunfire occurred at another car, in which a Palestinian man and his wife were traveling (they have 4 children between the ages of 10 and 14 years), as the occupation claimed that they did not stop at checkpoint, and killed them.
According to Haaretz, more than 32 bullets hit the taxi in which Ruqaya was.
The mother tried to protect her children by lowering their heads, but she was surprised by the blood pouring from Ruqaya’s back. She tried to get out of the car to convince the soldiers to save her daughter, but the driver told her that if she got out, she would be killed.
She remained waiting inside the car, and the driver called an ambulance that came from the village of “Bedouin” minutes later, but the occupation forces prevented her from passing through the checkpoint to reach the taxi, and then Ruqayya’s soul quickly reached its source.
Ruqaya's father confirmed to the newspaper that they waited for 10 full days before they received her body, and the family refused to conduct an autopsy on her, and took the initiative to bury her in her village.
Source: Haaretz