Parents Donate Organs of Killed Palestinian Boy

Author: 
Agence France Presse
Publication Date: 
Mon, 2005-11-07 03:00

JENIN, West Bank, 7 November 2005 — The grieving parents of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot by Israeli troops who mistook the toy gun he was holding for the real thing have donated their son’s organs for transplant in a bid to promote peace.

Several thousand people, including hundreds of children from Ahmed Al-Katib’s school flooded the streets of Jenin for his funeral yesterday, with many holding up photographs of other youngsters killed during the conflict.

“We have no problem whether it is an Israeli or a Palestinian (who receives his organs) because it will give them life,” the boy’s mother, Ablah Al-Khatib, told AFP.

Khatib was shot last Wednesday during clashes in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, when Israeli troops mistook the plastic gun he was holding for a real weapon and opened fire. He died in hospital on Saturday.

Ismail Al-Khatib said the decision to donate his son’s organs for transplant stemmed from a desire to answer violence with a concrete gesture of peace.

“I have taken this decision because I have a message for the world: That the Palestinian people want peace — for everyone,” he told AFP at his home inside Jenin’s battered refugee camp.

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