ei: Ten-year-old girl brain dead after border police shooting

Abir's sister, Arin, and a school friend who were walking with Abir when she was shot in the head two days ago. (Oren Ziv/activestills)

Abir Aramin, ten years old, who was wounded by an Israeli border policeman Tuesday the 16th, was announced brain dead this morning at the Haddasa Ein Karem hospital and is being examined by a committee to determine whether or not to unplug her from life support machines.

Bassam Aramin, the girl's father, is a member of Combatants for Peace, the Israeli-Palestinian peace organisation. Israeli and international supporters have gathered at the girls school in Anata to express their solidarity and protect the traumatised students from the ongoing threat of the Israeli border police.

Hassan, a sixteen-year old student who witnessed Abir's injury and carried her back to the girls school stated, "the students of the girls school and the boys school had both just come out of an examination. A border police jeep approached the gathering of girls. The girls were afraid and started running away. The border police jeep followed them in the direction in which they were retreating. Abir was afraid and stood against one of the shops at the side of the road, I was standing near her. The border policeman shot through a special hole in the window of the jeep that was standing very close to us. Abir fell to the ground. I picked her up and took her to the girls school. I saw that she was bleeding from the head."

The two girls outside the shop where Abir was shot. (Oren Ziv/activestills)

According to Avichai Sharon of Combatants for Peace and a friend of the family, "The Israeli border police have been entering Anata frequently when students go and return from school for the last year and eight months. This began with the construction of the Wall near Anata, supposedly in order to protect the construction workers from the students, but construction of the wall was completed over a month and a half ago." According to Wael Salameh, a close friend of the family and a member of Combatants for Peace, "This week border police would invade the village twice a day when the students were going and returning from school."

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