Posted on 06/29/2002 5:14:45 PM PDT by Pokey78
The family album that featured a snapshot of a Palestinian toddler dressed as a suicide bomber contained photographs of other children posing with Kalashnikov assault rifles, a senior Israeli army officer said yesterday, writes Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem.
The military said that it had also recovered a 44lb assembled bomb, two explosive belts of the type used by suicide bombers and military fatigues from the house of the baby's father, an alleged leader of the Hamas terror faction. The building was blown up after the search.
One photograph apparently shows the father standing with three teenage boys wielding AK-47s in front of a poster of a Palestinian suicide bomber. Other pictures show the boys wearing headbands and carrying guns.
The photograph of the five-month-old boy swathed in cartridge belts and a suicide bomb harness prompted outrage when it was released by the Israeli military, who said that it found the album in the house in the West Bank city of Hebron.
His relatives said the picture was taken as a joke at a party several months earlier, but refused to comment further. The discovery of the explosives and other photographs featuring children in military poses, however indicates that the shocking image was not a one-off. Israel said the pictures showed how Palestinians children were brought up to glorify the suicide bombers who have murdered scores of Israeli civilians during the 21-month intifada (uprising).
The other photographs have not been released as they feature men for whom the Israeli army is still looking during Operation Determined Path, its anti-terror sweep through West Bank cities.
Israel is looking for three men from the family, but they had gone into hiding before the army searched their home. It was not clear whether they were among the militants who sought refuge in the Palestinian police headquarters in Hebron during a four-day siege.
The large British-built fort was reduced to rubble yesterday in two controlled explosions, but the fate of 15 Palestinian gunmen who earlier refused to leave the compound was unclear.
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