Nader 'Othman, 18

Yesterday [Monday, 3 April] at around 6:30 P.M., I was at an Internet cafe in the center of Qalandia Refugee Camp, when I heard the sound of gunfire. I thought it was Israeli gunfire at the entrance to the camp. The Israeli patrols enter the camp regularly, and we try to force them out.

I left the caf? with my friend 'Ali Rashid Jum'a Barahmeh, who is seventeen, to throw stones at the army. We went toward the entrance to the camp. On the way, the traffic was normal. We didn't see any soldiers even when we got to the entrance, which is a fork off the Jerusalem-Ramallah road. Two young men were standing at the entrance. Two or three minutes after we got there, I saw an Israeli army jeep chasing two children who were running along the road in front of us. The jeep got to about 20-30 meters from them. The children turned into a narrow alleyway and managed to escape.

At that moment, we intended to throw stones. The jeep approached the intersection. The soldier sitting next to the driver stuck out the barrel of his rifle through an opening in the front window, aimed it at us, and fired a few live bullets. The bullets hit the concrete fence behind us. We ran into the camp.

We wanted to hide behind the walls of the buildings, but the jeep chased after us inside the camp. When we were about forty meters from the main intersection, we turned onto a side street that leads to the camp's medical clinic, where we encountered a youth. When he saw us and realized we were running from the army, he began to run with us. We passed him. When we were about 50-60 meters from the entrance to the side street, I saw that the jeep was still chasing us. The jeep stopped at the entrance to the side street, and the soldiers fired a volley of shots without getting out of the jeep. The youth was still behind us as we ran. We got to another street, and were about seventy meters from the jeep. 'Ali said, "I've been hit, I've been hit, my leg, my leg." I stopped and looked at his leg. It was bleeding. At the same time, I heard the youth running behind us cry out, but I was busy with 'Ali. I held him up as we walked via an alleyway and get to the camp's main road. 'Ali limped and bled all the way. When we approached the main road, the army was already gone.

I stopped a passing civilian vehicle, we got in, and I asked the driver to take us to the hospital. I also asked him to go by the place where the youth had been hit. When we got there, I saw a few young men from the camp lifting him up. He was in serious condition, as far as I knew, because his internal organs were visible and he was unconscious. We got out of the car so that they could take the youth first, his condition being much worse than 'Ali's. They put the youth into the car and took him to the hospital. Another car passed and took 'Ali and me to the hospital in Ramallah. On the way, when we rode along the rode that runs into the Jerusalem-Ramallah road, I saw two army jeeps that were coming from Semiramis and going in the direction of the camp.

When we got to the hospital, 'Ali was taken to the trauma room. The youth had already arrived. He was surrounded by doctors who were giving him first-aid. Then they took him into the operating room. A doctor examined 'Ali's leg wound. I saw where the bullet entered his right leg. They X-rayed his leg and carried out clinical tests, and decided to operate to remove the bullet from his leg.

Nader Naji Muhammad 'Othman, 18, is unemployed and a resident of Qalandia Refugee Camp. His testimony was given to Iyad Haddad on 4 April 2006 at the scene of the incident.