SOLDIERS IN GAZA FIRE AT THREE TEENAGERS, KILLING ONE

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Abd a-Ra'uf al-'Adini, 16, gave testimony that on January 23, 2007, he and two friends decided to quit school and look for work in Israel to escape their lives of hardship and poverty in the Gaza Strip.

Al-'Adini's father is ill and unemployed, and his aunt, who works at a vegetable store, supports the family. She only works ten days a month and makes less than 600 shekels. The welfare ministry gives 100 shekels every two months, and once a month the family gets 50 kilograms of flour, four kilograms of rice and one liter of cooking oil. 600 shekels is approximately 142 U.S. dollars.

The three boys reached the Israeli border at 11.30pm. As they moved closer to the border fence, they found an opening in the barbed wire. This, says al-'Adini, was unfortunate because it encouraged them to enter, and his friend Mahran died as a result.

They moved closer to the opening and then gunfire erupted. Mahran was hit in the stomach. He cried out and then recited the martyr's prayer. Then the soldiers fired flares into the air. Mahran was bleeding from the stomach. As the three boys lay on the ground, the shooting continued. Mahran died five minutes after being shot.

Five minutes later, al-'Adini was hit in the right side of his buttocks--he was lying on his stomach. His other friend 'Imad was hit in the shoulder. The soldiers said something in Hebrew, which the boys did not understand. They called out in Arabic that they were bleeding, were unarmed and only wanted to work in Israel. They didn't want to carry out attacks. Immediately, the soldiers began firing again. There was no place for the boys to hide, and the shooting continued for about twenty minutes.

One of the soldiers told the boys, in Arabic, to come through the hole in the barbed wire with their hands up. 'Imad and al-'Adini were separated from the soldiers by an electric fence. They were ordered to undress and stood completely naked before the soldiers. Then they were ordered to dress and told to climb the electronic fence. They sat on the ground with their heads between their legs and the soldiers treated their wounds.

Finally, the next morning, the boys were taken to a gate at the border area of al-Maghazi. They crossed through the gate and the residents of al-Maghazi called an ambulance for them.