Ramallah, February 21, 2025—Israeli forces shot and seriously injured an eight-year-old Palestinian girl inside her home in the southern occupied West Bank last week.
Jannat Faisal Sabri Mutawar, eight, sustained a severe head wound when Israeli forces opened fire on her family’s home during a military incursion into the Palestinian town of Sair, near Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, around 5 p.m. on February 11, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. As Jannat stood by her window with her younger brother, she tried to pull him away from the danger. Israeli forces fired a bullet through the window, shattering the glass and external grill, and struck Jannat on the left side of her scalp, causing a deep wound and embedding glass and metal fragments in her face, eyes, and head.
Her family rushed her to Alia Governmental Hospital before she was transferred to Al-Mizan Specialized Hospital in Hebron for emergency treatment. A medical team performed surgery on her right eye and removed metal and glass fragments, while her left eye, which sustained severe damage, is awaiting further surgical intervention. Doctors warn that Jannat is at high risk of permanent vision loss.
"Israeli forces continue to use reckless and indiscriminate fire in Palestinian communities, robbing children of their safety even inside their own homes,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Jannat’s shooting underscores the impunity with which Israeli forces operate, causing lifelong trauma and irreversible harm to Palestinian children.”
Israeli forces carried out an incursion into the town of Sair, spreading across multiple neighborhoods and firing indiscriminately during the raid. During the same raid, 19-year-old Abdullah Faroukh was shot in the chest and killed.
Doctors are monitoring Jannat’s condition closely, particularly the severe damage to her left eye, which has left it highly impaired. Imaging suggests that full functionality is unlikely to be restored. A second surgical procedure is scheduled to remove the remaining fragments, but her long-term prognosis remains uncertain. Jannat’s shooting comes just weeks after Israeli soldiers shot and killed two-year-old Laila Mohammad Ayman Khatib through her living room window as she ate dinner with her family.
The Israeli army continues to terrorize and enact indiscriminate raids throughout the occupied West Bank. The indiscriminate use of live ammunition in populated residential areas flagrantly violates these protections and exemplifies Israel’s ongoing impunity for crimes against Palestinian children, demonstrating a pattern of reckless violence and impunity.
