The undisputed facts are these: it was broad daylight, 13-year-old Iman al-Hams was wearing her school uniform, and when she walked into the Israeli army's "forbidden zone" at the bottom of her street she was carrying her satchel. A few minutes later the short, slight child was pumped with bullets. Doctors counted at least 17 wounds and said much of her head was destroyed.
Palestinian witnesses described the shooting as cold-blooded. They say soldiers could not have failed to see they were firing at a child, and she was killed as she already lay wounded and helpless.
This week an army investigation cleared the unit's commander after some of his own soldiers accused him of giving the order to shoot knowing the target was a young girl, and of then emptying the clip of his automatic rifle into her.
On the day she died, Iman left home shortly before 7am for the short walk to school in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood.
Iman walked past her school with her satchel over her shoulder, crossed the road and climbed down a small sandy bank to an area that was an olive and citrus orchard. She had entered the "forbidden zone" next to the watchtower where any Palestinian risks being shot.
The schoolgirl kept on walking toward the tower but was still several hundred meters away when two shots caught her in the leg. She dropped her bag, turned, tried to hobble away, and fell.
Four or five soldiers emerged from the army post and shot at her from a distance. Palestinian witnesses and some Israeli soldiers say that the platoon commander moved in closer to put two bullets in the child's head. They say that he then walked away, turned back and fired a stream of bullets into her body.
Some soldiers in the unit are outraged at what they see as a cover-up.
Others said that if the commander was not dismissed they would refuse to serve under him.
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