CAIRO: A 15- year-old boy died yesterday morning following clashes between police and 2,000 Bedouin protesters demonstrating on the road between Rafah and Al-Arish in the Maassura area on Monday.
Tagammu party member and former parliamentary candidate Hussein El Qayem was present at the protest and told Daily News Egypt that Ouda Mohammed Ouda Arafat, 15, died Tuesday morning as a result of injuries sustained in the protest.
He also claims that the deceased was hit by live ammunition in the pelvic region as well as sustaining other wounds in the chest from rubber bullets.
According to El Qayem, the protestors began their demonstration at 4pm on Monday to highlight their objection to rumored plans that officials would level buildings up to 150 m from the Gaza border, in an attempt to limit the amount of arms smuggling through the tunnels under the border.
He continued to say that police fired tear gas canisters and bullets from a 10-meter range but the protestors did not fall back, instead replying in kind with stones.
“It was like a scene from Falluja or Palestine, he said.
News reports did state that some protestors had guns and were firing in the air, a claim El Qayem counters. He said that there was live gunfire at 10pm, after the demonstration ended.
“Those who were injured were taken to private clinics because if we had taken them to hospitals they would have been arrested, along with their families, El Qayem said.
The police, heavily outnumbered, retreated and then returned with an additional 5,000-strong armed force that proceeded to fire tear gas at the protestors.
According to El Qayem, Arafat who had been taken to a private clinic, was sent to the Sheikh Zowayed Hospital the following morning because of the seriousness of his injuries. He died on the way.
El Qayem also said that the boy was not a participant in the protest, but had been sent by his father to buy supplies from the grocer, and he was felled in front of a grocer’s shop.
“We had to walk three kilometers carrying him wounded, El Qayem said, “because the police would not allow a car to enter and carry him away.
The hospital and the police have denied that there is a body, El Qayem said, despite Arafat’s body currently being in the morgue of the hospital.
At press time, El Qayem and Arafat’s father along with other residents were waiting outside the hospital morgue for the coroner’s report of the boy’s death and whether it was cause by live ammunition.
He warned of the impeding sense of tension which could spill out when the cause of the boy’s death is known.
“We are waiting outside the morgue and it is tense here. A massacre could happen, El Qayem said.
He also said that there will be a public funeral for Arafat.
News reports said 15 protestors were wounded in the conflict, as well as a reporter with Egyptian television and a news photographer whose camera was seized.
