The pizza remained on the car... Two critically injured by sniper fire in Al-Tur
“Uday and Iyas were injured. The bites in their mouths, blood ran down the rest of the food, and the pizza box remained on the car." With these words, Raed Abu Mufreh, Uday's father, summed up the moment his son and cousin were shot by a sniper in the town of Al-Tur.
A few minutes before midnight, 13-year-old Iyas Abu Mufreh and his 22-year-old cousin Uday Abu Jum’a were eating dinner in front of their family home. There were no clashes, no sounds of alarm, just the quiet of the village of Al-Tur, east of Jerusalem. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire echoed, followed by screams and cries for help. The peaceful evening turned into bloodshed and urgent surgeries.
In the vicinity of the Abu Jum’a neighborhood, as the family gathered after their grandmother returned from performing Hajj, the young men ordered dinner (pizza) and sat near the car. Iyas and Uday were among those present when they were suddenly struck by sniper fire, in the absence of any soldiers or clashes in the area.
Uday fell to the ground, unable to move after being hit by an explosive bullet in the abdomen, while Iyas was hit by an explosive bullet in the shoulder and began screaming in pain. They were immediately transferred to Al-Maqased Hospital in Jerusalem.
Raed Abu Mufreh, Iyas's father, said the neighborhood was completely quiet, and that the gunfire came suddenly and from a long distance. He explained that Iyas was hit by an explosive bullet in the shoulder, causing bone fractures and damage to nerves and arteries, requiring long-term treatment to repair the damaged tissue. As for Uday, a bullet penetrated his abdomen, causing serious damage to his liver and spleen. He underwent urgent surgery.
According to the family and eyewitnesses at the scene, the sniper was positioned on the roof of a residential building approximately 500 meters from where the young men were sitting, and he fired directly without any warning or reason.
Later, occupation forces stormed Al-Maqased Hospital and sealed off its surroundings. They then stopped the ambulance transporting Iyas to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital and interrogated his mother on the spot before allowing him to be transported. They also arrested the parents of Iyas and Uday from inside the hospital and took them to Salah al-Din Police Station, where they were interrogated for nearly four hours.
In an attempt to evade responsibility, occupation forces claimed that the two injured men had been shot due to a "private problem between residents," or that they had been throwing Molotov cocktails. This was refuted by the family and eyewitnesses, who confirmed that the area was completely quiet.
At the same time, other forces raided the site of the injury, smashing the windows of two vehicles bearing bullet holes, and confiscating bullet fragments, in a clear attempt—according to the family—to conceal evidence.
For several days now, Al-Tur has been witnessing successive raids and attacks on residents with grenades and rubber bullets. On Saturday, two streets in the village were blocked with cement blocks, forcing residents to take detours and walk long distances to reach or leave their homes.
