GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The two brothers were helping out in their dad's welding shop when an Israeli missile slammed into an ice cream truck carrying Islamic Jihad gunmen. Two militants were killed, but so were the boys.
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The tragic results of the airstrike, which killed a third child nearby, are prompting new debate in Israel over the targeted killings of Palestinian fugitives.
Israel's air force commander defended the strikes against Islamic Jihad, which has carried out daily rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel as well as all six suicide attacks since February 2005.
On Wednesday, Islamic Jihad threatened to hit Israeli leaders in retaliation for Monday's killing of its militants. "The Zionist enemy leaders should know that they definitely are targets," it said in an Internet statement.
An Israeli human rights group called for the military to investigate whether Monday's raid involved the use of "disproportionate" force.
In its inquiry, the Israeli air force said the ice cream truck carrying the militants had turned onto a crowded street after the missiles were launched Monday and it was too late to divert them. Drone aircraft photographing the scene did not pick up the civilians in time, the Maariv daily reported.
The boys' mother said it was too late for explanations or apologies, recalling her anguished search for her boys after the attack.
"I ran to the window when I heard the strike. The window shattered, and I saw a man carrying Mahmoud's lifeless body," said Somaya al-Batsh, mother of 8-year-old Raed and 16-year-old Mahmoud.
"But I couldn't see Raed. I asked everyone, 'Where is Raed? Where is Raed?' A neighbor later told me that he flew through the air from the force of the blast."
Receiving condolence callers in Raed's bedroom in Gaza City, al-Batsh did not mask her anger at Israel.
"This was a street full of people and children. How can they fire a missile? Who is the terrorist here?" she said bitterly
Then she added, "My sons are in heaven now."
The small room was decorated with the dead 8-year-old's drawings — a winter scene, his gray unpainted house.
Raed was the studious type, she said, and was already saving to buy a house. His red piggy bank rested near his bed, close to pictures of leaders of the militant group Hamas.
Mahmoud was a handyman, and kept people laughing around the house, she said. He picked fights with his sisters and cracked jokes about their living conditions.
Islamic Jihad has ignored an informal truce with Israel being observed by the Islamic militant Hamas, and on Wednesday it again rejected the cease-fire. In recent months, Israel has stepped up its airstrikes in Gaza, aiming at militants it says are involved in the daily rocket barrages at Israel. Civilians are often caught in the crossfire.
Another boy, 14-year-old Ahmed Sweisi, also was killed in Monday's strike.
Air force commander Eliezer Shkedy, speaking at a conference at Tel Aviv University on Tuesday, offered statistics showing the air force is getting better at targeted strikes. In 2002, as many bystanders were killed in the airstrikes as terror suspects. Last year, Shkedy said, 28 militants were killed for every civilian in the raids.
Just as the statistics were no comfort to the grieving mother, they did not satisfy all Israelis, either.
Shai and Dror, a two-man team of Israeli entertainers who broadcast daily on a Tel Aviv radio station and write a column in the Maariv newspaper, said Wednesday the air force commander's explanation "does not clear our conscience."
Writing what they called an open letter to the slain boys' mother, they cited many friends who feel the same way, though they would not say so in public, "because the Israeli narrative does not allow people to come out against the military ... It is forbidden to say that this army does not represent me. But it doesn't. Not when it kills children."
It's not the first time Israel has killed children in airstrikes targeting militants.
Some 514 Palestinians age 16 and younger were killed between September 2000 and March 2005, according to an Associated Press count. During the same period, 97 Israeli children were killed in Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem called for the military to investigate whether Monday's raid involved the use of "disproportionate" force, "which is defined as a war crime," it said in a statement.
The suffering is not over for the al-Batsh family. Of the seven children wounded in the airstrike, four were relatives of the dead brothers, including their 18-year-old brother and a 4-year-old cousin who lost an eye. The dead boys' father, Ahmed, was hospitalized for two days.
Their mother looked to her faith for consolation. "God chose them to be with him," she said, holding her breath as she spoke of the boys. "And only he can take revenge for us."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060308/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_slain_children
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The tragic results of the airstrike, which killed a third child nearby, are prompting new debate in Israel over the targeted killings of Palestinian fugitives.
Israel's air force commander defended the strikes against Islamic Jihad, which has carried out daily rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel as well as all six suicide attacks since February 2005.
On Wednesday, Islamic Jihad threatened to hit Israeli leaders in retaliation for Monday's killing of its militants. "The Zionist enemy leaders should know that they definitely are targets," it said in an Internet statement.
An Israeli human rights group called for the military to investigate whether Monday's raid involved the use of "disproportionate" force.
In its inquiry, the Israeli air force said the ice cream truck carrying the militants had turned onto a crowded street after the missiles were launched Monday and it was too late to divert them. Drone aircraft photographing the scene did not pick up the civilians in time, the Maariv daily reported.
The boys' mother said it was too late for explanations or apologies, recalling her anguished search for her boys after the attack.
"I ran to the window when I heard the strike. The window shattered, and I saw a man carrying Mahmoud's lifeless body," said Somaya al-Batsh, mother of 8-year-old Raed and 16-year-old Mahmoud.
"But I couldn't see Raed. I asked everyone, 'Where is Raed? Where is Raed?' A neighbor later told me that he flew through the air from the force of the blast."
Receiving condolence callers in Raed's bedroom in Gaza City, al-Batsh did not mask her anger at Israel.
"This was a street full of people and children. How can they fire a missile? Who is the terrorist here?" she said bitterly
Then she added, "My sons are in heaven now."
The small room was decorated with the dead 8-year-old's drawings — a winter scene, his gray unpainted house.
Raed was the studious type, she said, and was already saving to buy a house. His red piggy bank rested near his bed, close to pictures of leaders of the militant group Hamas.
Mahmoud was a handyman, and kept people laughing around the house, she said. He picked fights with his sisters and cracked jokes about their living conditions.
Islamic Jihad has ignored an informal truce with Israel being observed by the Islamic militant Hamas, and on Wednesday it again rejected the cease-fire. In recent months, Israel has stepped up its airstrikes in Gaza, aiming at militants it says are involved in the daily rocket barrages at Israel. Civilians are often caught in the crossfire.
Another boy, 14-year-old Ahmed Sweisi, also was killed in Monday's strike.
Air force commander Eliezer Shkedy, speaking at a conference at Tel Aviv University on Tuesday, offered statistics showing the air force is getting better at targeted strikes. In 2002, as many bystanders were killed in the airstrikes as terror suspects. Last year, Shkedy said, 28 militants were killed for every civilian in the raids.
Just as the statistics were no comfort to the grieving mother, they did not satisfy all Israelis, either.
Shai and Dror, a two-man team of Israeli entertainers who broadcast daily on a Tel Aviv radio station and write a column in the Maariv newspaper, said Wednesday the air force commander's explanation "does not clear our conscience."
Writing what they called an open letter to the slain boys' mother, they cited many friends who feel the same way, though they would not say so in public, "because the Israeli narrative does not allow people to come out against the military ... It is forbidden to say that this army does not represent me. But it doesn't. Not when it kills children."
It's not the first time Israel has killed children in airstrikes targeting militants.
Some 514 Palestinians age 16 and younger were killed between September 2000 and March 2005, according to an Associated Press count. During the same period, 97 Israeli children were killed in Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem called for the military to investigate whether Monday's raid involved the use of "disproportionate" force, "which is defined as a war crime," it said in a statement.
The suffering is not over for the al-Batsh family. Of the seven children wounded in the airstrike, four were relatives of the dead brothers, including their 18-year-old brother and a 4-year-old cousin who lost an eye. The dead boys' father, Ahmed, was hospitalized for two days.
Their mother looked to her faith for consolation. "God chose them to be with him," she said, holding her breath as she spoke of the boys. "And only he can take revenge for us."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060308/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_slain_children
