Samer Bassam Abdul-Qader Karamah, a victim of Israeli rubber coated steel bullets, was a thirteen-year old student at Ibn Rushd Preparatory School, and a resident of Hebron. A soldier of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) fired at Samer at close range as he was returning from a day at school, school bag in hand. Samer was immediately transferred to AI Ahli Hospital in Hebron to receive treatment for his injury. However, the treatment was unsuccessful, and Samer was martyred on 17 March 1998, one week after being shot.

According to the official medical report conducted by the physician who treated him, Samer's death was caused by a rubber coated steel bullet which had pen- etrated his head and lodged itself within his brain.

In 1998 alone, 14 Palestinian children were killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The majority of these children were killed in the same manner: injuries sustained from rubber coated steel bullets, fired by IDF soldiers, bullets which are allegedly not lethal.