JERUSALEM – A pizza box and a bullet hole. That was the only evidence left on al-Hardoub Street of the gruesome June 16 sniper attack on Uday Abu Juma’, 21, and Iyas Abu Mufreh, 12, in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of at-Tur, after authorities swept the scene the following day.
Just before midnight, cousins Uday and Iyas had gathered with family members outside their grandfather’s home in at-Tur. The Abu Juma’ extended family had come together to celebrate their grandmother’s return from the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. A daughter in the family had also scored highly on the Palestinian national “tawjihi” exams.
Days earlier, Israeli authorities had placed roadblocks on the two main entrances into the neighbourhood at the start of the 12-day conflict with Iran on June 13. But according to family members, that night, all was quiet in the neighbourhood.
Iyas and Uday were sitting near a car, eating pizza, when suddenly, they and their family members were fired upon. Of the 10 shots fired, two struck Iyas and Uday, and blood spilled over the pizza.
“Everyone was in shock,” recalled Nisreen Abu Mufreh, Iyas’s mother. “We didn’t know what was happening. Obviously, there weren’t any threats towards the military [from our street].”
Only when reviewing neighbours’ security camera footage of the street did the family later realise that two Israeli snipers, positioned about 500 metres (550 yards) away on a rooftop, had opened fire on the family gathering without warning. (Al Jazeera)
