PALESTINIANS, NOT ISRAELIS, KILLED THE 12-YEAR-OLD BOY
Arutz-7 IsraelNationalNews.com 10/31/00

An IDF investigation and re-enactment appears to show conclusively that the 12-year-old boy from Gaza, Muhammad al-Dura, was not shot by Israeli soldiers - but was rather the victim of a cruel plot staged by Palestinian sharp-shooters and a television cameraman.

The incident in question occurred on Oct. 6, when the boy and his father happened to be walking past the scene of a major battle between Palestinian snipers and Israeli soldiers. Former IDF sniper Yosef Doriel, who initiated the re-enactment, said that he had several reasons to suspect that it was not the Israelis who shot the boy. "For one thing, the boy and his father were hiding behind and to the left of a barrel that was between them and the Israeli forces," he told Arutz-7 today. "In the video clip, you see four clean bullet holes to the side of them. These were not shot by the Israelis - they are 'clean' and full holes, not mere grazes that would have been formed by the 30-degree angle of the Israelis - but rather by Palestinians (stationed more directly in front of the father and son) to make sure that the two would stay put. Suddenly, you see the boy lying down in his father's lap, with another bullet hole in the wall directly behind him - again, it could not have come from the IDF position, which was behind the barrel and to the side, but only from the Palestinian position, which was more directly in front of the father and son. This is the bullet that went through his stomach and out of his back. At that point in the video, you can hear the firing - but the Israeli position was far away! Rather, what happened was that a Palestinian advanced to a spot very close to the photographer, and shot the fatal shot. You can also notice that at that moment of the fatal shots, the photographer suddenly 'shook' and the picture was blurred - a signal that the shots came from close to him."

Doriel and a fellow physicist, Nachum Shachaf, proposed that O.C. Southern Command Yom Tov Samiyeh oversee a re-enactment of the entire incident, complete with the barrel and life-size dummies. Doriel concludes: "The Palestinian forces staged the event. The Israelis were firing, for sure - but the fatal shots came not from them, but from the Palestinian position in front of the boy, behind the cameraman."