BEIT LAHIA, West Bank — Eight-year-old Mohammed Shaban dreamed of
returning to the classroom in the Gaza Strip for the start of the school year.
اضافة اعلان
But after an exploding missile blinded him in May, he is staying home.
Mohammed used to attend school with his cousins and neighbors in the town of
Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.
He is one of hundreds of children the United Nations says were injured
during fighting in May between Israel and the Hamas, who control the
Palestinian enclave.
From May 10 to 21, Israeli occupation forces pummeled the
Gaza Strip in
response to rocket fire by Hamas.
Mohammed said he was walking to a market to buy clothes during the conflict
when a missile detonated.
As a result of the blast, his father Hani said, "Mohammed was injured
in the eyes, which led to the loss of his eyes, and Mohammed became completely
blind."
He still hopes to return to school, Hani said, but his new disability has
left him moody and unpredictable.
"He sometimes asks me, 'When will I see?', or 'When will I go back to
school with the children?', or 'When will I go out to the street alone?',"
Hani said.
War crimes
Human Rights Watch has accused both Israel and groups in Gaza of war crimes
during the conflict.
Israeli air strikes killed 260 Palestinians, including fighters, while
munitions fired by groups in Gaza killed 13 people in Israel.
HRW said Israeli strikes were not always directed at military targets.
It said Palestinians also fired indiscriminately at Israeli cities, with
rockets that fell short killing at least seven Palestinians in the Strip and
wounding others.
The Shabans say Mohammed was injured by a missile fired by the Israelis,
although AFP could not independently verify its origins.
Mohammed grips his father's hand, his head facing down, as they walk through
their neighborhood.
They step along narrow dirt streets lined by cinderblock walls covered in
graffiti.
At home, Hani Shaban guided his son to sit down on cushions and showed him
the collared shirts of his school uniform.
Mohammed gripped a pen and tried to form letters in a notebook as his
parents encouraged him.
"In the future, I hope he can go to a special school for the
disabled," said Somaya Shaban, Mohammed's mother.
She took her son in her arms and burst into tears.
In the meantime, Mohammed is determined not to lose touch with his old
classmates.
On Tuesday, he insisted on going to school to catch up with them — and his
parents obliged.
Sitting in the front row, he tried briefly to follow a lesson, his mother
Somaya and friends sitting beside him.
"He was really excited to hear the school clock," his mother
said.
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