Posted on 07/24/2002 9:07:19 AM PDT by dead
WE found them in the morgue, the victims of Israel's air strike on Gaza, tiny bodies lying on slabs that were too big for them.
The Palestinians opened the refrigerators to show us the bodies. They were the bodies of children.
They pulled back the covers over one to show the tiny head of a baby, eyes screwed up as if in sleep. Part of the back of its head was missing.
In the next refrigerator lay Mohammed al-Hwiti. They said he was 4 years old. He too could have been asleep. He was still dressed in a bright blue top.
In the refrigerator below was his brother, Subhi. He was 3.
Nine children died when an Israeli missile ploughed into the packed residential neighbourhood around midnight Monday.
On the floor of the morgue, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, lay the target of the missile, Sheik Salah Shehada. The morgue staff pulled back the flag. Inside were fragments of raw flesh. The body had been torn apart.
In a second flag beside him, lay a bundle of the body parts of his wife, Leileh, and their 14-year-old daughter.
Shehada was a man with the blood of children as young as these on his hands. He was the head of the military wing of Hamas, the militant group which has been behind more suicide attacks than any other.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday described the air strike that killed him as "one of our biggest successes" because it "hit perhaps the most senior Hamas figure on the operational side".
It was an unavoidable step to protect its citizens from suicide bombers, Israel said.
More than 140 people were wounded, and at least 14 died. All but Shehada and one other of them were civilians, we were told.
"Are these terrorists?" one of the morgue staff asked angrily, pointing to the bodies of the children.
Pushing our way out of the morgue, we had to struggle through a growing crowd that was getting angrier by the minute. Hundreds of young men, their faces hidden under black hoods, fired guns in the air.
"Are you prepared for revenge?" someone screamed through a loudspeaker, and they roared back in answer.
They formed a funeral procession for the dead, thousands of them kept coming in - a great sea of people. They brought the bodies out of the morgue, and one young man held the body of a baby aloft above his head, swaddled in a Palestinian flag and keffikah.
The din was deafening. Above their heads, flew the green banner of Hamas, the black of Islamic Jihad, the red of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the yellow of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
The message was clear - all the militant groups, Islamists and secularists were united in their anger, and in their determination for revenge.
They draped the coffin of Shehada under a green Hamas banner and paraded him slowly through the streets.
We found the father of the two dead brothers, Mahmoud al-Hwiti, in the hospital. His face was badly torn apart and he found it difficult to speak.
His brother, Mohammed, told his story. Mahmoud's two tiny sons were killed, and his wife. Four children survived.
The two brothers, Mohammed and Mahmoud, lived with their families in the houses next door to each other. All Mohammed's family escaped alive.
When we went to find their homes all that remained was rubble. The houses where the missile struck had been flattened, reduced to piles of dust and stones.
Just before midnight on Monday, this was a packed residential neighbourhood, full of people trying to sleep in the intense summer heat.
Gaza City is teeming with Palestinians who have nowhere else to go. The locals said about 20 people were living in each house.
"We had no idea we lived next to a guy from Hamas," Mohammed said.
It seems Shehada, who knew he was at the top of the Israelis' hit list, was living here in secret. The Israelis will say that Shehada deliberately targeted Israeli civilians, that their air strike was directed against a militant with blood on his hands.
But there was no way Israel could fire a missile into this warren of houses without terrible civilian casualties. They must have known that.
(Independent News Service)
That means that the presence of civilians (protected persons) does not automatically render areas occupied by combatants (which this terrorist most assuredly was, even if he calls himself a guerilla or a freedom fighter) immune from military attack.
When a combatant takes it upon himself to hide in an area occupied by civilians, that combatant is to blame for the deaths of protected persons.
The loss of innocent lives, especially children, is always a tragedy. But it was essential to kill or capture this man. During WWII American bombs killed thousands of innocents. A sad but necessary cost of freedom and security.
I agree completely.
What disturbs me, is the growing presence around here of people who actually cheer (not reluctantly tolerate) the death of innocent children.
They’re absolutely no better than that disgusting Palestinian woman shown on TV cheering the innocent dead on 9/11.
It might be a little difficult since many of the Jewish children's bodies were blown apart and thus made for less effective propaganda photos. Hey, I feel sorry that these children died, however their parents and Palestinian terrorist supporters who cheered and danced in the streets every time some Jewish child was blown to smithereens are to blame for their predicament. Live by the sword...
Regardless of Sharon's latest response, the Israeli attack was a justifiable act of war. The loss of innocent lives, especially children, is always a tragedy. But it was essential to kill or capture this man.That's how I see it. I'd also much rather see Israel attempt to hit the specific individuals who are planning and promoting the attacks on them, instead of storming around the West Bank and Gaza and attacking everyone except the real perpetrators. Even if they screw up, like they apparently did.During WWII American bombs killed thousands of innocents. A sad but necessary cost of freedom and security.
Killing Shehada undoubtedly did more to hinder the terror war against Israel than all the recent invasions of the West Bank combined. It sucks that there were innocent victims as well, but in the long run its likely that more lives will be saved.
-Eric
What disturbs me, is the growing presence around here of people who actually cheer (not reluctantly tolerate) the death of innocent children.Very true. There's a disturbing tendency by some, here and in other forums, to see a billion people as somehow subhuman.They’re absolutely no better than that disgusting Palestinian woman shown on TV cheering the innocent dead on 9/11.
-Eric
At least Israel apologizes and admits that it was a mistake to kill civilians. This happens in war. The US was guilty of it during WWII--and we were purposefully targeting Dresden and Hiroshima because we felt that these horrific acts were neccessary to defeat the Axis Forces that would do so to us if they had the power. It worked. We were the victors and treated the fallen survivors with more dignity and generosity than they would have done to us if the situation were reversed.
As for Hamas and other Palestinians, they have already made it clear that they want the Jews and infidels destroyed. Like the Nazis, they throw a party and are totally unrepentant when their kind murders Israeli civilians in bed, in shopping malls, pizza parlors or during a religious celebration. Genocide and driving all of the Jews into the sea is the Palestinian's ultimate goal. Not peace. It's up to Israel to make them see otherwise. Until then, the picture is not going to be pretty.
..." It would have been at least 4 or 5 years before we could have strapped explosives on them and sent them to Tel Aviv ! "
Your words are worth repeating, BL, and often.
For instance, remember the bus bombing last week...the EUroweenie press doesn't. Two terrorist scumbags mercilessly mowed down innocent civilian survivors as they ran from the damaged bus?
One of the wounded was a pregnant woman. Her baby was delivered ceasarian section. The baby died shortly afterward.
Did this publication publish any sob stories about that attack?? Any stories on the young students mowed down in their school by a Pali terrorist (called an "infiltrator" by the leftist press)?? Any stories on the families murdered in their beds, or on the latest wave of homocide bombings???
Why not?? They're pertinant stories. Hamas claimed responsibility for many of them. This attack was in retaliation...what is Israel doing that the US isn't?
Most importantly....WHERE IS THE TOTAL (**GACK**) BARF ALERT??
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