Abdallah Hawash’s mother, Sajud, and his 2-year-old brother, Umar.Credit : Alex Levac

It’s a Tiananmen-like image. A convoy of armored Israel Defense Forces jeeps is moving rapidly along the main road, which is deserted. A child hides behind some garbage bins and occasionally throws a small stone at one of the passing vehicles, which continue on their way undisturbed. As the last jeep goes by, the boy throws one last stone, which most likely didn’t even hit its armored flank, and in the next breath he is seen collapsing on the ground on his back. The occupants of a passing private car gather up the 11-year-old – whose life, it emerges, was snuffed out by a bullet from a vehicle that didn’t even stop – and rush him to a hospital.

Such is the fate of a boy who dares to throw a stone at a vehicle of the occupation.

On June 5, 1989, in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, an anonymous student stood alone opposite a convoy of tanks that were on their way to suppress a popular uprising against the regime. The student, whose fate is unknown, became a worldwide hero. The little stone thrower in the West Bank was probably motivated by a similar desire to display resistance – and sentenced to summary execution by the army. In Israel, of course, he is not considered a hero or even a victim, only a terrorist.

Abdallah Hawash was a student in sixth grade when he died. The passengers in the military jeep went on their way, probably not even knowing or caring that a boy had been killed. The incident took place on Tuesday, October 22, on one of the main streets of Nablus.

Video : The shooting of Abdallah Hawash.

Fatayer is a quiet, middle-class neighborhood perched on the slope of Jabal at-Tur – Mount Gerizim – in the southern part of Nablus. A steep staircase leads up to the apartment building in which the Hawash family lives. Posters with handwritten Arabic instructions explain how to get to the home of the little victim. In the photo on some of the memorial posters Abdallah is seen holding a plastic machine gun, in others he’s not. He’s younger in the picture with the weapon.

Lining the living room wall are signs bearing condolence messages for the family from children of the preschool Abdallah once attended and from his current classmates. Less than a week had gone by since Abdallah’s death when we visited. The smell of food and an infant’s cries fill the room. Five-month-old Saef is carried in on his mother’s arms.

The head of the household, Jamal, 38, owns a small furniture factory on the outskirts of Nablus ; his wife, Sajud, 36, is a homemaker. Until last week the couple had five children : Nidal, 12 ; Abdallah ; Huda, the only daughter, 5 ; Umar, 2 ; and baby Saef. Abdallah, whose nickname at home was « Abud, » was killed by IDF soldiers. He had attended the venerable Ghazaleh school, named after Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, a political activist who died in Nablus while preparing a bomb in 1968.

On one occasion, when his father had a toothache, Abud told him he wanted to be dentist when he grew up ; once when he accompanied Jamal to his furniture factory, he said he would be a carpenter. Sajud, an impressive and refined woman, has more to say about her son than her quiet and pensive – and perhaps also dazed – husband. Abud was different from her other children, she says, adding, « He was always trying to discover new things, to touch and investigate. If a toy broke, he would try to fix it. He was small but full of energy. » The mother’s eyes are dry, but her right leg bounces incessantly as she talks about her son.

Abdallah Hawash’s parents and younger siblings.Credit : Alex Levac

In the past year, Abud had been glued to screens, following the events in the Gaza Strip. Sajud said the images of children his age being killed there affected him profoundly ; sometimes they brought tears to his eyes. He changed during the war. Like many of the children in Nablus, he also admired the local heroes, the shahids – martyrs – who were killed by Israel in refugee camps and in the city itself.

Above all, Abud revered Ibrahim Nabulsi, the legendary hero of Nablus and a social media star, who was killed by Israel in 2022 at the age of 18 ; he had been a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Abud liked to imitate and dress like Nabulsi. He wore a pendant bearing his hero’s picture. The photograph of another shahid hangs above his bed. His mother says she made sure he didn’t leave the house when the army raided the city. To their misfortune, he was already in the street during the last raid in his life.

Last Tuesday, Abdallah awoke along with rest of his family at 5:30 a.m., the usual wake-up time. Before going to school his mother told him that his paternal grandparents would be coming for the afternoon meal. When he got home, around 2 o’clock, he asked where they were. He was told that Grandma Huda was visiting neighbors, who are also relatives ; Grandpa Nidal would be arriving later, when Dad came home from the carpentry shop. Borrowing his mother’s phone, Abdallah called his grandmother. Where are you, I’m waiting for you, he asked. Grandma Huda, 55, suggested that he join her at the neighbors’ and he hurried off.

Later he called his mother to ask whether he could invite his cousin, 12-year-old Hamza, whom he was visiting, to eat with them at home a bit later on. Sajud, who was preparing mansaf (a dish with meat, rice and yogurt) agreed ; they invited Hamza’s mother as well. Abud returned with Hamza and they played on the floor. After the meal, Abud asked his mother for money for candy. She gave him 2 shekels (about 50 cents), which he spent at the grocery store. He then got permission to go out and play with his friends not far from home, on condition that he’d come back in half an hour. Abud set out on his bike. Hamza stayed to play with his older cousin, Nidal.

The wall above Abdallah Hawash’s bed. His mother says the boy had been glued to screens, following the events in Gaza.Credit : Alex Levac

After hearing where Abud had gone, the brother and cousin went out to find him and bring him home, as Sajud asked. By now it was almost 5 o’clock. Suddenly she heard people outside talking about the army being back in the city. That’s routine here, of course, but she began to panic. Her sister-in-law, Hiba, who had also been at the meal, went out but unable to track them down ; Sajud suggested she try the main street.

Near the mosque, passersby told Hiba that the army had already left. But then she heard that a child had been wounded by gunfire and had been taken to nearby Rafidia Hospital. After learning that it was Abdallah, she hurried to the hospital in a shared taxi.

By now the news that Abud had been wounded had reached his home ; Sajud passed out when she heard. Her mother-in-law revived her and tried to calm her down. Sajud’s brother called and told her not worry : The boy had only fallen on some glass and had some cuts. Sajud’s mother-in-law grabbed the phone and asked what had really happened – just as Nidal and Hamza entered, sobbing. Nidal tearfully explained that he’d heard that Abud had been shot : He and Hamza had last seen him while they were hiding from the troops near a vegetable shop. Abud rode past on his bike and Nidal tried to stop him, but his younger brother said, « I’m not afraid of the soldiers, I’m going to throw stones at them. »

In the meantime, Jamal, still at work, heard about the incident and rushed to the hospital where he saw the physicians trying to save his son’s life – in vain. When he saw the child’s face he knew the end was near, he recalls. Immediately he called home. In shock, Sajud made her way to Rafidia where she grasped the horror and began to scream and weep until she was removed from the room. Six days later, she says to us, calmly, « My son was innocent. Now he’s a shahid. He was killed unjustly. »

A boy touches Abdallah’s photo near the Hawash family’s home in Nablus.Credit : Alex Levac

What is known from the investigation conducted by Salma a-Deb’i, a field researcher for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem – who, along with her colleague, Abd al-Karim Sa’adi, accompanied us this week to the house of mourning – is that Abdallah was shot by a soldier in the armored vehicle from a distance of some 20 meters. Probably out the back window. The horrific incident was captured on video taken by eyewitnesses : A boy throws a few small stones, a convoy speeds past and the boy is hurled backward as he throws a stone at the last vehicle. None of the jeeps stops. The street is empty, no one is gathering there.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit this week responded to Haaretz’s query : « In the wake of the incident, an investigation was launched by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division. Immediately after the event, a debriefing was conducted in the unit, as a result of which the soldier in question was suspended by his commanders from all operational activity until a decision is made in his case. »

Abud’s schoolbag now lies on his bed, next to the pillow. Next to the photo on the wall of the admired shahid, pictures of Abud have now been added.

Gideon Levy and Alex Levac