A ten-year-old girl from a village north of Jerusalem , who was critically injured by Israeli Border Police on Tuesday, has died after being taken off her life support machine.

Abir Bassam Aramin, from the As Salam neighbourhood of Anata, situated close to Israel 's illegal separation wall north of Jerusalem , died in Jerusalem 's Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital . She had been kept on life support machine since Tuesday, when she was shot in the head by Israeli forces with a stun grenade close to her school. Since Tuesday, she lay in a coma.

In a press release from the International Solidarity Movement, who had taken part in a demonstration on Thursday against this fatal attack, Hassan, a sixteen-year old student who witnessed Abir's injury and carried her back to the girls' school stated, "The students of the girls' school and the boys' school had both just come out of an examination. A border police jeep approached the gathering of girls. The girls were afraid and started running away. The border police jeep followed them in the direction in which they were retreating. Abir was afraid and stood against one of the shops at the side of the road, I was standing near her. The border policeman shot through a special hole in the window of the jeep that was standing very close to us. Abir fell to the ground. I picked her up and took her to the girls' school. I saw that she was bleeding from the head."

The Israeli military claim that the Palestinian children were protesting against the separation wall. The Israeli army claims that the child was amongst other students who were protesting by throwing stones and rocks at the Israeli patrols, and that the soldiers shot tear gas and sonic bombs at the children for dispersal only.

Bassam Aramin, the girl's father, is a member of Combatants for Peace, an Israeli-Palestinian peace organisation comprised of former Israeli combat soldiers and Palestinians who were previously involved in acts of violence in the name of Palestinian liberation. He has denied the army's story saying that she was with her sister at the time of the attack.

He told the Israeli daily 'Haaretz': "Border Policemen see our children as targets, terrorists. They think if they shoot a 10-year-old girl they are serving the country's security."

"I don't know how a policeman is threatened by a 10-year-old girl who went to buy candy," said Aramin. "Maybe they will say it was a psycho who shot, or they will say that sometimes [Palestinians] lie and say a Palestinian family was killed on the sand at the beach, or that in Beit Hanun 20 Palestinians were killed by Qassams. But this story won't work with me, this policeman and his commanders must be punished."

The school principal has also denied the army's story.

ISM also states that, according to Avichai Sharon of Combatants for Peace and a friend of the family, "The Israeli border police have been entering Anata frequently when students go and return from school for the last year and eight months. This began with the construction of the Wall near Anata, supposedly in order to protect the construction workers from the students, but construction of the wall was completed over a month and a half ago." According to Wael Salameh, a close friend of the family and a member of Combatants for Peace, "This week border police would invade the village twice a day when the students were going and returning from school."

The Israeli military, however, said in a statement published in the Israeli daily 'Haaretz', "During a Border Police operation in Anata [on Tuesday], a riot developed that including the throwing of stones at the force… The troops were forced to respond with methods for dispersing protestors. As of yet, no complaint has been received ... regarding injuries."

Haaretz also says that, at around 9am on Tuesday, the children from the sixth grade went into the yard for a break. At that time, confrontations broke out outside the school.

On Thursday morning, Israeli and international supporters gathered at the girls' school in Anata to express their solidarity with the family and school, and to attempt to protect the traumatised students from the ongoing threat of the Israeli border police.

Abir's death has brought widespread concern. The UK 's foreign office minister Kim Howells said in a press release: "I was deeply concerned to hear of the death today of a ten year old Palestinian girl as a result of an Israeli operation in Anata, east of Jerusalem . We understand that Israel has begun an investigation into this incident, and urge the Israeli authorities to make this as thorough as possible. We call on all sides to do everything they can to avoid the harming of civilians, particularly children. This incident highlights, once again, the urgent need for the Israelis, Palestinians and the international community to do their utmost to reach a just and lasting settlement to this conflict."

Source: Maan News Agency