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IWPS: 19 year old man shot at Huwarra checkpoint

12 August 2006

Today the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) visited a family in Haris whose son had been shot after he passed through Huwarra checkpoint on the way out of Nablus. Their son Salem is 19 years old and has permission to travel to Nablus. He works at Barqan Industrial Complex. He had been in Nablus after work on Saturday 12th August to pick up some things for his family. On the way out he passed through the checkpoint on foot without any difficulties from the army. He then got in a taxi about 50 metres from the checkpoint.

His father reports, that after waiting many hours in the hot sun at the checkpoint to leave Nablus, some people got very angry and the soldiers started running at the crowd and firing into the air. Salem was sitting in a taxi some meters from the checkpoint when a stray bullet came through the rear of the taxi and hit him in the back.

He was taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus, where he stayed for four days. The bullet is lodged less than a centimeter from his spine. The doctors say that they cannot take the bullet out as they do not have the capacity to do so without causing permanent damage to his spinal chord. Salem is now home. He is able to walk very slowly but is in some pain. The family would like him to be able to get an operation overseas to remove the bullet but it is possible he may not get permission from Israel to leave the West Bank, even for medical reasons.