Mohammed a-Dura Did Not Die From IDF Gunfire

Mohammed a-Dura was killed on the second day of the Intifada at Netzarim junction, after he was caught along with his father in the middle of exchanges of fire between IDF soldiers and Palestinians. Foreign television crews documented the father protecting his son, and then the boy’s death and the father’s injury. The pictures of the two, hiding behind a wall, terrified, were published worldwide They came to symbolize the Intifada and served as a dramatic indictment against the State of Israel.

Esther Shapira, the editor of the prestigious documentary series, The Fourth Square on the German television network ARD, decided to investigate whether the boy truly had been shot by IDF soldiers, and what the boy and his father were doing in so dangerous a place. The report, which was broadcast yesterday, is based on an analysis of the footage of the event and on testimonies. Many people were interviewed for the program, including the father, a Palestinian photographer who was on the scene, IDF soldiers and eye-witnesses.

The conclusion drawn by the investigation was that Mohammed a-Dura was probably not killed by IDF fire. “It cannot be concluded with absolute certainty that it was the Palestinians who shot the boy, but the numerous proofs point to a high probability that it was not the Israelis who did so”, the program editor, Esther Shapira, told Yedioth Ahronoth yesterday. She said that three pieces of data are lacking for a conclusion of absolute certainty: No autopsy was performed, the bullets that killed the boy were not sent to a lab for ballistic inspection — which would have allowed for a determination as to which gun they were fired from, and the wall behind which the father and boy hid was destroyed by the IDF a short time after the incident, so that the military positions and the gunmen’s positions could not be determined with certitude.

“However”, said Shapira, “What can be proven is that the Israeli soldiers were positioned lower down, while the pathologist in Gaza determined that the bullets that killed a-Dura had been fired from high up”. The report also concludes that a-Dura’s death was the result of an accident and was not deliberate. “Had this been deliberate gunfire, it would not have taken IDF snipers 45 minutes to hit a stationary target”, Shapira said.

Another conclusion reached by the investigation is that the presence of the father and son in so dangerous a place had been staged for media propaganda purposes. This conclusion was reached because “the father had no reasonable explanation as to why he was there with his son at the time”.

The findings of ARD’s investigation correspond to the conclusions drawn by the IDF, which were first published by Yedioth Ahronoth. These conclusions state that a-Dura was probably killed by Palestinian gunfire. Then OC Southern Command, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yom Tov Samia, headed an investigative committee that examined the circumstances of the boy’s death. At the presentation of the investigation’s findings, Samia said that the holes in the wall behind the boy demonstrated that the bullets had been fired from a different direction than that of the IDF position. Samia also explained that the boy’s father said in interviews to the Arab media that his son had been hit in the back, while the boy was facing in the direction of the IDF position. This article ran in Yediot Aharonot on March 19, 2002