Mohamad Qadus

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on March 25th, 2010
photo from AFP

"One is dead! Go home! That's what the soldier told me…." Salwa Qadus told me, her voice cracking in fear as if the Israeli soldier was still standing at the corner where she was pointing.

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"The boys were shouting for an ambulance… the soldiers wouldn't let them pass", she recalled…pausing every so many words to gasp for air.

"I didn't know the dead boy was my nephew" she went on, almost succumbing to tears. She's talking about 16 year-old Mohamad Qadus, who was fatally shot in the chest on Saturday; and his cousin Usaid, who died in a Nablus hospital Sunday morning from gunshot head wound.

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on March 22nd, 2010
Photo by Nour Odeh

Iraq Burin children

Reporting on the death of children is never an easy task. It challenges your sense of professionalism and puts you face to face with the strongest of emotions; a mother’s inconsolable grief at the loss of her child.

On Sunday, I went through this unforgettable experience - four times.

It started out with news coverage of a funeral for 16-year-old Mohamad Qadus and his cousin Usaid - 18 years. They were shot dead by Israeli soldiers at the conclusion of a day of demonstrations in their small village of Iraq Burin.

The mood was so sombre; you could feel it walking around… Men silent and serious, women distraught and in tears.

Freshly dug graves

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