Bra'ah Owaisi
Palestinian girl: I wanted to see where my aunt was killed
A 12-year-old Palestinian girl, who was shot and lightly injured by Israeli security personnel after she failed to heed their calls to stop while approaching a checkpoint, denies she ever intended to end her life or take revenge; 'What is revenge?'
Two days after being shot at a checkpoint in the West Bank after arousing the suspicion of the security guards, the 12-year-old Palestinian girl says that she simply wanted to see how her auntie was killed—and didn’t plan to die. “I never said things like this,” said Bara’a Owaisi to Channel 2 News journalist Ohad Hamo Thursday, after it was alleged that she had said “I came to die.”
Owaisi, from Qalqilya, recounted how she had made her way to the Eliyahu checkpoint near Alfei Menashe in the West Bank on Wednesday morning, where she was shot in the leg after soldiers suspected that she intended to carry out a terror attack.
Scene of incident at Eliyahu checkpoint
“From the day that my auntie was killed I wanted to go and see how they killed her. As I continued the Jew spoke to me in Hebrew and I didn’t understand him,” she said. “They thought I had a knife but where would I bring a knife from? I am, afterall, a small girl.”
Bra’ah Owaisi (Photo: Channel 2 News)
According to Owaisi, she never intended to avenge her auntie’s death, who was killed half a year ago at the same checkpoint. “To take revenge? What does it mean to take revenge? What connection do I have to these things? What are you talking about, revenge?’ the girl asked.
Her father expressed his anger at the fact that the soldiers had opened fire on what turned out to be an unarmed girl. “I am angry. How can you fire on a young girl like this aged 12 and injure her like this? I went crazy, I couldn’t believe how a girl could go all the way to the checkpoint,” he said.
Scene of incident (Photo: Medabrim Tikshoret)
According to the version of events given by the security personnel, they saw the girl approaching carrying a bag which they feared could contain an explosive device and therefore called on her to stop a number of times. Failing to heed their warnings, they fired two warning shots into the air.
Nevertheless, Owaisi continued in their direction, they claim and suddenly inserted her hand into her shirt just a short distance away, prompting the guards to shoot her once in her leg and leaving her slightly wounded. Upon searching the girl, no weapon of any kind was found.
