Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-09-07.
The Season to Kill Children?
BBSNews 2007-09-07 -- By Mohammed Omer. Once again, disturbing news comes from Gaza: the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) again opened fire on civilians, killing three Palestinian boys and wounding one of their cousins as they played in a field in the northern Gaza Strip just days before the new school year is to start.
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Palestinians throwing stones during clashes between Hamas and Fatah right after Friday's prayer.
Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-09-07. |
According to eyewitnesses and medical sources at Kamala Adwan hospital, 12-year-old Yahya Ramadan Ghazal and his 10-year-old cousin, Mahmoud Mussa Ghazal, were killed when Israeli artillery fire from across the border slammed into a field east of Jabaliya refugee camp.
Nine-year-old Sarah Suleiman Ghazal was critically wounded and rushed to the Kamala Adwan hospital in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya, while a fourth child suffered less serious injuries in the attack. Sarah died later on due to her critical injuries.
Israel has waged regular strikes and incursions against the overcrowded Gaza Strip ever since democratically-elected Hamas took control of the impoverished territory last June. Concurrently, different Palestinian factions continue to launch rockets towards Israel. The immediate IOF response is heavy rocket fire and tank shelling, usually targeting people in the north of Gaza Strip.
The killing of the children brings yet more death into the lives of Palestinian kids and heightens the fear of going to school anew, as the memory still lingers of the killing of children in Rafah and Jabalya. Painful still is the memory of last year's incident, when Israeli missiles hit a school bus on its way to school, injuring many of the children.
In an interview, 34-year-old Umm Salaman said: "I'm concerned about the safety of my children. I'm afraid that I will receive the news that one of my children has been injured. We have already suffered the tragedy of having our house in Rafah demolished." The mother of 5 boys who attend UNRWA schools in Rafah refugee camp, she elaborated on her fears: "I'm worried about sending my children to school this week, but we have to send them to school. Education is the real way to end the Israeli Occupation. I had to take the younger one, Sami, 7 years old, to school everyday. He is afraid to go alone; when he hear the Israeli helicopters, he gets scared and starts crying, even if he is at home."
Monday night, five members from the Fatah movement were kidnapped by unknown militants in Khan Younis City, the south of Gaza Strip.
The Fatah members were identified as Hazem Al Faqawy, Ahmad Kheres, Wael Timraz, Tamer Al Shaqra and Muhammad Kullab, according to a statement issues by Fatah movement.
Meanwhile, Gaza's municipality workers are still on strike and Gaza stinks with the rot of uncollected rubbish, an accumulation of many weeks. This morning in Gaza, 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in different parts of Gaza Strip, 6 of them militants preparing to launch an attack against an Israeli border post.
Mohammed Omer is a young journalist/photographer in the Gaza Strip. He and his family have a very rough time in living day to day and they have lost much. In October of 2003, one of Mohammed's younger bothers, Issam, was injured and had to have a leg amputated. Later in the same month another younger brother, Hussam Al-Mouhagir, was killed in his home; shot to death by the Israeli Army that occupies and regularly devastates Palestine. These stories are written by Mohammed who knows no peace, only the continued devastation forced upon civilians who have little voice in the world. Mohammed has covered the Occupied Territories for several years. In 2006 Mohammed won the New American Media National Ethnic Media Award for best Youth Voice. On May 18th, 2007, Mohammed was shot at by unknown militants in Gaza yet he continues to report. Visit Mohammed's Web site, or write to him to get a more complete picture of what is really happening that main-stream news sources rarely brings to its audience. We are proud to feature articles from Mohammed Omer here at BBSNews, his reporting is some of the only original, on the ground reporting available from the Israeli Occupied Territories.