False deaths, confused identities as Israel-Palestine violence escalates

Palestinian Territories:

For two weeks after Palestinian mother Basma Avedat received the devastating news that her son had been shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, she was in mourning.

Then he received a call informing him that 28-year-old Thayer had indeed been shot, was alive and was being treated at a hospital in Israel.

“I couldn’t believe what they were saying,” Basma said.

Amidst the chaos of escalating violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the West Bank, such painful stories of confused identity are rare but not unique.

In the case of Thayer Avedat, Israeli forces raided the entrance to the Aqbat Jaber refugee camp near the West Bank city of Jericho on 6 February, searching for suspects accused of attacks against Israelis.

The army said it killed five “terrorists” and an Israeli security official then told AFP that the army was holding the bodies of dead Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority, which said it had been informed by Israeli officials, announced that Tahir Awedat, a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, was among the dead.

His picture appeared on posters on the walls of the refugee camp, which included those of other Palestinian “martyrs”, and there was a flood of messages of condolence.

Shock

Then Basma Avedat’s phone rang.

It came from the mother of one of his cousins, Alaa Avedat, a young man who was wounded in the same raid and taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

Except that when she got to the hospital, she realized to her shock that the injured person was not her child. This Thayer was informed.

Wounded by bullets, the latter was in critical condition and was in a coma.

“I couldn’t believe he was still alive,” said Basma, who applied for permission to travel to Israel.

“I saw him, his head was tied, and there were several wounds on his body. I tried to talk to him, but he didn’t respond”.

Back home in Aqabat Jabr, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, the same neighbors who had offered condolences days earlier returned.

Basma Avedat said, “Women in the camp started coming to congratulate me because my son is alive after days of mourning.”

Her husband Khalid Avedat has not been allowed to meet their son.

“According to what my wife has told me, his condition is serious and his death can be announced any time,” he said.

As for Ala Avedat, his fate is unknown.

A relative told the family that she had seen him alive in an Israeli ambulance on 6 February following clashes in the Aqabat camp. But they haven’t heard a word from him since then.

The military would only confirm that they had five bodies from the 6 February raid.

Asked by AFP about a possible mistake, neither the army, police nor COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, would explain the reason for the confusion.

The Palestinian Authority did not specify who from Israel submitted the names of Palestinians killed during military operations.

‘Like the numbers’

But this is not the only case.

In October, a similar story unfolded in the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah in the West Bank.

The Basbas family mourned the death of their son Basel for two days after Palestinian sources told them that he had been killed by Israeli forces near Ramallah while driving with two other people who also died.

But he was not dead.

“I was unconscious and two days later I woke up in hospital, my legs and hands were bound,” Basel Basbus told AFP.

The family received a call from a friend who had a relative who worked at the Israeli Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem.

His mother, Ataf Basbous, said, “She called to tell me…Basel was still alive.”

“Due to the nature of her condition, it appears that there was some confusion about her identity prior to her admission for treatment,” the hospital said in a statement.

Ataf Basbus said, “The Israelis treat us like numbers, they don’t care about families. My son was shot and stayed in the hospital for 18 days before being released, but when he did nothing, no one didn’t care.”

Basel Basbous is still in hospital in Ramallah receiving treatment for injuries to his leg and arm.

Previously nicknamed the “Heroic Martyr”, like all Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, he has since been referred to as the “Living Martyr”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)