Israel: Blame Unclear In Boy's Death

The Israeli army said Monday its inquiry into the shooting death of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy that shocked the world showed it was possible he was killed by Palestinian and not Israeli bullets.

But Palestinian officials say Israeli fire killed Mohammad al-Durra, whose death captured on television became a symbol of martyrdom for the uprising against Israeli occupation in which at least 275 people, most of them Palestinians, have died.

"Our comprehensive investigation conducted in the last few weeks cast a serious doubt that the boy, Mohammad al-Durra, was hit by IDF (Israeli army) fire," the head of the southern command, Yom Tov Samia, told a news conference.

"There is quite a possibility that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets in the course of the exchange of fire that took place in the area, especially from the back."

Jamal al-Durra and his 12-year-old son, Mohammed, were dropped off by a taxi driver who refused to drive through the melee at Netzarim junction. When Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire, the al-Durras took cover behind a concrete block along a wall on the southeast corner of the crossroads.

Television footage broadcast across the world showed Durra and his father cowering behind a concrete cylinder against a wall in the midst of a gun battle between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. The boy was shot and slumped in the lap of his badly wounded father.

Mohammed died of stomach wounds. According to the doctor who pronounced him dead, those wounds were caused by a large-caliber, high-velocity machine gun—a weapon only the Israelis were firing that day.

An army statement said the Israeli military post involved in the Sept. 30 gun battle, on a road leading to a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, was under Palestinian fire from at least nine directions.

The Israeli Defense Forces Web site displays an aerial photo of he scene of the shooting that depicts Israeli troops being fired upon from all sides.

On the site, the IDF states: "After Palestinian policemen fired from (their) position and around it toward an IDF position opposite, IDF soldiers returned fire toward the sources of the shooting and during the exchanges of fire the Palestinian child was apparently hit and killed."

"The IDF wishes to express its sorrow at the death of the child and any incident in which lives are lost, but emphasizes that the Palestinians make cynical use of children's lives by sending them to throw stones under cover of Palestinian fire that endangers their lives," the site reads.

At least six IDF soldiers have been killed at Netzarim junction in the past six years.

Maj. Gen. Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, chief of Palestinian public security, said the Palestinians' own investigation ruled out the possibility that Durra was shot from behind.

"After a thorough investigation…it ws very clear that bullets had been fired from the Israeli army post and that an Israeli soldier had killed the innocent child," he told Reuters.

He said Durra was in front of the Israeli post "and it was very clear to them that he was innocent, disarmed even of stones, and helpless."

Samia said the bullet-riddled wall and cylinder where the Durras had taken cover were "unintentionally destroyed" on Oct. 7 when the Israeli army knocked down towers, a factory and other structures from where the post had come under fire.

But he said the army reconstructed the scene, checked bullet hole angles, and interviewed soldiers who were in the post.

CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reported in October that while the chilling footage of al-Durra's death was broadcast around the world, Israeli investigators did not pick up a copy of the tape of the killing until almost three weeks after the incident.

The Israeli military refused CBS News' requests for an interview in October. At that time, in a statement, the military said, "It was not possible to determine the source of fire, therefore it is impossible to determine who injured the boy."

Al-Durra's death, which came two days into the latest round of violence became a rallying point for Palestinians.

When Israel arrested several suspects in the Oct. 12 lynching of two Israeli soldiers — another brutal act caught on tape — Palestinians demanded the soldiers who allegedly shot al-Dura be handed over to them.

Palestinian militia leader Hussein Sheik said after the lynching arrests, "Now, you give us the right to go after those who killed Mohammed al-Durra."