Boy shot by Israelis becomes martyred hero for Palestinians

[Scurrilous]

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"Ahmed Moussa planted bright new Palestinian flags around his village of Naalin earlier this week in a show of national pride - but he may as well have been preparing for his own funeral.

Today his small body, hoisted on to the shoulders of the young men in his village as they marched to his parents' house before the burial, was wrapped in the red, white, green and black flag. At the age of 10, Moussa had become a national martyr.

The road outside his house was renamed The Hero Martyr and the walls of the town were sprayed with slogans and posters lionising his death.

But apart from his enthusiastic support for Naalin's protest against the West Bank barrier, Moussa's interests were typical of most children his age.

He loved playing football, watching cartoons and making slings to hurl stones. The morning before he was shot by an Israeli soldier, he was playing marbles in the street.

In a conflict that has claimed the lives of four Israeli children and 60 Palestinian children so far this year, Moussa's death highlights not only the growing violence between Israel's military and Naalin's residents but the loss of childhood innocence."

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