Raeda didn't think her daughter Sanabil was going to live when she saw her face in the trash of the levee where she fell after an Israeli settler hit her with her car. Sanabil had been standing on the side of the road playing with her siblings. "When I looked at her frail body, I was certain Sanabil was not going to make it alive. I thank God every day for her life."

With a broken hip and leg, nine-year-old Sanabil rests in a bed at the Arab Society Hospital in Beit Jala trying to recognize people through the haze of medication intended to overcome the physical pain. It is clear that the wound of this trauma is still very much with her as this young girl tries to understand what happened to her.

While initial reports indicated that this was an intentional act, this has not been confirmed and some witnesses believe it to have been an accident.  Unfortunately, to the people of Sanabil's village, Jaba', in the Bethlehem district, settler attacks by car or other means are not uncommon. Even in Sanabil's family, only a few years ago, her aunt and her two daughters were violently attacked by settlers outside of their village and spent days in hospital recovering from their injuries.

Whether this incident was intentional or not, Sanabil is one of many Palestinian children who are enduring the physical and emotional trauma of an occupation that has rendered thousands of people homeless and has fueled a tremendous amount of violence, borne all too often by children.