Muhammad Farmawi, a 15-year-old said to have been shot dead by the IDF during Land Day riots in Gaza on Tuesday, was reported on Saturday to be alive and well.
The Palestinian Ma’an news agency said Farmawi’s mother was surprised to find her son alive four days after he was allegedly killed. His death had been confirmed by medical professionals in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF, however,
firmly denied allegations that Palestinians had been killed during demonstrations on Land Day, which marks the
34th anniversary of the killing of six Galilee Arabs during protests against land confiscations.
According to the Ma’an report, Farmawi arrived in Gazan Rafah on Friday alive and well. He was discovered to be part of a group of 17 Palestinian youths who were arrested after trying to infiltrate Egypt via smuggling tunnels. Gaza police facilitated the boys’ return to their homes.
Farmawi’s mother had “wept for days at the loss of her son,” whom she considered a martyr, Ma’an reported.
The IDF had stressed that although the protesters in southern Gaza –
among them Farmawi – had moved their demonstration to a dangerous zone
close to the security fence, no soldier had shot to kill.
“The demonstrators knowingly occupied a zone in which movement is
forbidden and attempted several times to reach the security barrier,”
read a statement by the IDF Spokesman’s Office released on Tuesday
evening. “As a result, it is possible that a number of demonstrators
were hurt.”
Sixteen Palestinians, among them a nine-year-old boy, were said to have been wounded by IDF fire.