are the soldiers gone so paranoid that they can't tell the difference between a fake and a real gun? or maybe they can but just don't wanna risk it. they're investigating. good. then what? they discover that it was a mistake then the same guy that fired the rifle is right back in the same place a week later? what's the point? just idiots.

This constant killing of Palestine children is horrific,,,what is wrong with you people.

sucks for the kid and his family, but why would you let your kids play with plastic M16s when you know there are army patrols around? stupid.

I'm sorry for the family of this 16 year old, but I have to tell you, when you are 16 years old, nearly adult size and out "playing" near anyone's soldiers with a "toy rifle" that is nearly indistinguisable from the real thing, this kind of thing happens. There are incidents every year of this kind of thing with police here in the US. The way to stop this kind of incident from occurring is to make sure that the "children" are "playing" with guns that look markedly different than the real thing. Or foster a culture of peace rather than guns.

That is why children should not have weapons, nor toy guns. But they grow up in belical situations, their parents and teachers teach them hatred, antisemitism and so on. Then why should a child be in a war zone? He should stay at home, and let the ¨ great resistance¨ pussys show their coward face to the IDF long live israel

There have been plenty of teenage Pal terrorist. For the idiot to "play" with a plastic weapon says he's likely planning on using a real one. The IDF must take no chances and should shoot anyone with a gun. No complaints about "mentally handicapped" either. If true, his parents should know better than giving him a toy weapon and the only reason to allow it would be to intentionally create a martyr.

Now how smart do you have to be to carry a toy gun in a combat zone? And what about the parents? No brains, right? It didn't occur to them to warn their kids? No, of course not. But it's because they glorify carrying guns, of pretending to be fighters. They can't even have a wedding or a funeral without shooting guns. It's their symbol of virility, proof of their manhood, like some sick phallic symbol for those with low self-esteem. No wonder they don't warn their kids not to carry toy guns - they think it's normal. And our soldiers? They have a split second to react & it wouldn't be the first time children are used by Palestinians as fighters. Sickening.

Honoring those who improve the species...by accidentally removing themselves from it! http://darwinawards.com/ Don't carry a fake weapon in a war zone, fool. And the kid was 16 years old- not 4.

It's a fair guess this youth has already received exposure to, and perhaps training in the use of, such weapons, and is just waiting for the day he's given the real thing. (Think about what goes on in Hamas "summer camps".) Others of his age are using real guns. Are troops from a distance supposed to distinguish one from the other? Maybe troops are expected to invite these youth to approach for closer inspection. I don't see much to investigate. If you're carrying weaponry in a war zone, even if it's plastic, you've made yourself a potential target. If you're dumb enough to play soldier in such an environment, the consequences are on your own head.

why on God's Green Earth would anybody run around in the West Bank with a plastic submachine gun????? was it a prop from a a Hamas school graduation play? what about fake bomb belts? -they need those too!

Given teh documented facts that Hamas and fatah run camps which teach kids to use guns and given the fact that the Pali education system's books and sylabii are filled with incitement against Jews, isn't it logical that a soldier seeing a pali kid with what appears to be a weapon and the knoledge to use it and the education to hate Jews would need to susopect that this kid is coming to kill him or other Jews? Our armed forces are called IDF D for DEFENSE, which gives our troops the mandate to DEFEND us. The kid got killed, too bad my heart bleeds borscht, maybe his parents will learn to teach their kids not to wander around with objects which appear to be weapons!Maybe the bleeding hearts shoud concentrate of influencing the palis to stop teaching hatred and how to murder!

The parents of that young adult ought to be embarrassed that their 16 year old was out playing with a toy gun. When I was that age I was out chasing broads, not running around the streets playing soldier. As for the IDF who shot him, well mistakes happen. But I ask, was it a mistake that this boy was playing so close to soldiers with a toy gun?

in the city like Hebron where 67 Jews were massacred in 1929 (19 years before Israel's creation!) as well many other Jews have been killed since the city's resettlement by Jews, it's not very prudent for an Arab to wave any sort of a weapon (fake or not) in front of Israeli soldiers. Should they have taken the chance of ending up killed themselves? Hebron is a city full of Arabs with genocidal plans for the Jews - this is not a secret.

You admitt to keeping an occupied population in a War Zone. I'm sure your "Hashem" sees all the sympathy in your hearts. You must be tiring from the 40 brutal years of occupation. Give it up, and let these people get on with their lives, you have done enough damage.

How could they NOT fire at a youth holding a weapon ???? Lets see, soldiers are supposed to aproach each terrorist ask him nicely to have his weapon checked for "fake test" and they proceed to shoot him ??? Could Ynet stop acusing IDF for "mistakes" when they were doing what anybody in his senses and responsibilty should be doing ? I'm sorry this Arab was acting stupidly, but Ynet is asking too much

displaying toy guns in a war zone is asking to be fired on where are your brains ?

You would think the parents would have more sense than let their kids run around with toy guns in such an armed society. It almost sounds to be staged to happen. Do you suppose the kid is considered a Muslim martayr?

Toys r us gift certificates for humanity. We must donate more toys to these youths, then only will there finaly be peace.

Don't put armed 18 year olds with guns in such a situation. They shoot first then ponder the questions. It is the young IDF soldier who believes in the propaganda of his government who can kill anybody with or without a gun who is not threatening them. The IDF shoots Palestinian police officers, then wonders why they don't stop the violence. These young soldiers should not be in Palestinian areas in the first place. It is too easy for them to kill with their guns, and they have been taught by the army and the state that it is good to kill Palestinians. So, they shoot first. Later he will regret it. Now it was the boy's fought, or his parents, no matter that he was shot playing in his own neighborhood with his friends. Shoot first, check the facts later. IDF soldiers are too young; they should go to college first before being drafted. That way they would have some more maturity. Of course, older soldiers don't follow orders quite as blindly as the younger ones.

Isn't that land actually Israel? Isn't the current country of Jordan sitting on what was supposed to go to the Jews? Weren't the Jews supposed to get their land back instead of having it squatted on? And by the way, whatever happened to those million Jews who were kicked out of various middle eastern countries? Why did those leaders of the brutal regimes kick the Jews out? And what about that nazzi, racist grand mufti in Jerusalem? Wouldn't the arab moslems have beheaded him if he had been a Jew saying that type of stuff against moslems? And what of the hate that's preached in every moslem country as well as various moslem schools including the US? What of those books in Virginia moslem schools that preach about Jews being descended from pigs and every other religion being the infidel? I'm just puzzled at all of the hatred that surrounds the moslem religion. Could an upstanding moslem actually answer these questions? Do you actually agree with all the killing taking place in the name of allahhh?

occurrence. Do you all get together and make the same excuses every time?

Everyone in Israel gets so upset when their well-armed soldiers get attacked or killed. Why do you not have the same feelings for Palestinians? Why do you not understand their pain? Somehow it is acceptable that a 16 year old with a toy be shot because he is a Muslim or a Palestinian, while it is a great evil when your soldiers are harmed. You have a profound break down in morality here. Give the Palestinians Justice, and your conflict will end because you deserve for it to end. But as long as you insist on double standards, and injustice, your conflict will continue. How sad for your children who will grow up to champion murder, if not to become murderers themselves.

leaving the christian city of Bethlehem that has been occupied by them.

The 'toy' gun was a type of fake indistinguishable from a real gun. In fact, many people often carry such fake guns for day-to-day deterrence, since real guns cost 10-50K. What do you people want the soldiers to do, go up and ask if the gun is real? It was a 16 year old boy. How different do they look from 18 year olds? Not to mention, how often to 16 and even 12 year olds in the West Bank carry around real guns? Fairly often. If he'd been carrying a real gun, he would have been a combatant, regardless of his 'youth'. And many kids his age and even younger are pushed to be so. Why not scream your heads off about THAT?