Everything happened in a flash. The bullet was barely heard. The girl fell to the ground blood covering her face. Paramedics gathered around her trying to help then rushed her to the nearest hospital.
In a horrifying scene an Israeli sniper deliberately shot Mai Abu Rweida 20 with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the eye east of al-Bureij refugee camp in Central Gaza leaving her seriously injured.
Abu Rweida was provided first aid in the scene and later she underwent a surgical operation in a hospital in Gaza City in which doctors had to remove her right eye.
The Israeli occupation forces weekly target the Palestinian protesters in the Great March of Return in the Gaza Strip with internationally prohibited bullets and bombs. Dozens have been killed or critically wounded.
The PIC photojournalist who was present in the scene when Abu Rweida was shot said “I couldn’t see Mai’s face properly the moment she was shot. Large bandages were covering her face. All I understood when I took the picture near the border fence was that she had been hit in the eye. The blood covered her kufiyah and trembling hands.”
On her hospital bed Mai said “I suffered minor wounds six times during my participation in the Great March of Return protests. On Friday 6 December at the start of the demonstration I was shot in the eye. The bullet damaged my right eye and caused a skull and jaw fracture. Doctors removed my eye and now I need a corneal transplant.”
Abu Rweida told the PIC reporter that before she was shot she glimpsed an Israeli soldier waving and pointing his finger to his eye in a threat to snipe her in the eye.
“I was standing there doing nothing wrong” Abu Rweida recalled. The soldier fired a tear gas grenade at Mai. She ran away but still was in sight of the soldier. Seconds later he raised his gun aimed at Mai and shot her in the right eye.
Appeal
Abu Rweida appealed to the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to urgently intervene and help her receive the necessary treatment.
In addition to permanently losing sight in her right eye Mai has suffered fractures in her skull and jaw by the shrapnel of the bullet and she needs to undergo other operations.
Hours after the eye removal surgery Abu Rweida appeared in a video with an eye patch on her face talking about her strong determination despite the pain.
Deliberate attack
Jaqueline Shehada 32 has accompanied her friend Abu Rweida at the hospital since the first day to support her.
Shehada told the PIC “I saw her the moment she was shot. She was about 30 meters away from me. She fell to the ground bleeding before the paramedics arrived.”
Shehada who was injured in the Great March of Return protests in November 2018 said that the Israeli soldiers deliberately wound the Palestinian girls in their eyes.
She continued “I had a similar injury a year ago when an [Israeli] soldier fired a bullet that hit my eye damaged part of the retina and caused partial blindness.”
Sabrin al-Arami who was also injured in previous protests said that she was there when Abu Rweida was shot. “What happened was deliberate and premeditated” she confirmed.
Al-Arami said that she was standing next to Abu Rweida along with a group of girls who were raising Palestine flags peacefully near the border fence.
Recalling what had happened to her al-Arami said “An Israeli soldier shot me with a rubber bullet in the eye. I felt dizzy and I fell. When I woke up I found that I had partially lost sight in my left eye.”
Al-Arami was injured in March 2019 in a similar incident that left a deep wound on her face. She has undergone several treatment cycles but she still needs cosmetic surgery in her nose and eye area.
Dozens of Palestinians who were injured in the Great March of Return are suffering from complicated health problems which the hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip have been unable to cure due to the lack of equipment supplies and capabilities.
