Mohammed al-Dura's Father Calls for International Probe Into Whether IDF Killed His Son

The father of a Palestinian boy Israel says was not killed during a shootout between the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinians 13 years ago has called for an international investigation to prove his son indeed died in the incident.

• Panel: No Evidence al-Dura Was Killed
• Barak Ravid / Let al-Dura Affair Rest
• Israeli Physician Acquitted of Libel Against Mohammed al-Dura's Father
• Editorial / Focus on al-Dura Is Bad Propaganda
• Defense Minister Joins al-Dura Fray

On Sunday, an Israeli panel said "there are many indications" that Mohammed al-Dura and his father Jamal were never hit by gunfire – neither Israeli nor Palestinian – in the shootout early in the second intifada. According to the report, complete footage shows that the boy was still alive when the shooting stopped.

"I am prepared for an international investigation in which people from the outside investigate and see who is right – the government and the soldiers or the al-Dura family. Israel is afraid,” Jamal al-Dura told Army Radio on Monday.

Later, speaking to Haaretz, al-Dura said he would "do anything to reveal the truth, including opening my son’s grave … and to examine the circumstances of his death.”

According to al-Dura, “What saddens me is that I feel alone in the face of the Israeli propaganda machine, and no one is at my side – whether from the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah or the Hamas government in Gaza.”

Al-Dura told Army Radio that his son had died on the spot, from the soldiers’ gunfire. “He was killed next to me and was buried in the Bureij refugee camp,” he said.

"They can lie as much as they want …. I saw it all with my own eyes and I know what happened there. Why did Israel use bulldozers to knock down all the walls at Netzarim Junction? So there wouldn’t be any evidence.”

According to al-Dura, “When they killed Mohammed, Bill Clinton came out and condemned the incident and gave Israel a bad image, so Israel is lying. The bullets the Israelis fired are in the possession of the Palestinian Authority. How come on the first day of the intifada when they killed Mohammed and I was wounded Israel said it had killed Mohammed?”