Since the beginning of this year, Defense for Children International has documented three Palestinian children who were deliberately targeted by the occupation, who caused them to lose their eyes.

In a statement, the World Movement referred to the case of the child Khaled Malalha (5 years) from Bazariya village in Nablus governorate, who lost sight in his left eye as a result of being shot by the occupation.

An eyewitness told the World Movement that the occupation soldiers fired bullets at the vehicle in which the child Malha was traveling with his father on the 23rd of last June, while they were at the village crossroads, where clashes were taking place at around 6:00 pm that day.

The eyewitness added that the distance between the occupation soldiers and the vehicle at the time of the shooting was about 200 meters, confirming that the vehicle was parked, noting that the live bullet hit stones near the vehicle before its fragments scattered and one of them hit the left eye of the child, Malha.

The child Malhaha was immediately transferred to a hospital in Nablus by an ambulance that was present at the place, and there it was found, after examinations and photographs, that the left eye of the child was severely damaged and he would not be able to see in it again.

As for the child Omar Assi (16 years), from the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit, he was injured by shrapnel from a sound bomb fired at him by the Israeli occupation soldiers, on the twenty-fourth of last April, during clashes that broke out in the town. As a result, he lost sight of his right eye, while his left eye was severely damaged.

The child, Asi, told the World Movement that the clashes broke out that day after the occupation forces stormed the town, amid live bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas. He added that while he was sheltering with a number of citizens in a school, the occupation soldiers surrounded them and fired gas and stun grenades at them, and a stun grenade exploded directly in his face.

He continued: "I felt severe pain in my face, and I no longer saw in my eyes at all, and I also felt that blood was pouring from my face, so a number of those present carried me and walked me about 100 meters until we moved away from the soldiers, and then they took me in a private vehicle to the entrance of the town, and from there by an ambulance to a hospital in Nablus."

The child, Asi, said: "In the hospital, it was found that there was severe bleeding in my right eye with some shrapnel, as well as in my left eye, but to a lesser extent. I underwent surgery to stop the bleeding in my right eye and close it so that it does not become inflamed more, and currently I do not see at all in it, but in my left eye I see in it very lightly."

The "global movement" returned and mentioned the case of the child Ashraf Mahmoud Farahti (16 years) from the city of Jenin, who was shot by the occupation forces during their storming of Abu Bakr Street in the city center at rush hour, on the sixteenth of last March (2023).

The child, Farahti, was wounded in his right eye while he was hiding behind a Palestinian vehicle at the scene of the accident. Shrapnel from the bullet lodged in his brain stem. Because of the seriousness of his health condition, he was taken to a hospital in Ramallah, where he stayed for 65 days, including 20 days in intensive care, during which medical staff were unable to surgically remove the shrapnel due to the dangerous location.

After that, Farahati was transferred to the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation, due to his complete loss of movement, while he was being fed through a tube.

His father says that he does not know whether his child knows him or not, as he is unable to move or even express his facial features.

The World Movement confirmed that the Israeli occupation soldiers deliberately target Palestinian civilians, including children, from a close distance and towards the upper parts of the body, with the aim of killing them or causing them permanent disabilities, taking advantage of the protection from accountability within the policy of impunity provided by the occupation to them, noting that these crimes rise to the level of a war crime and a crime against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.