by AlicetheCurious » Thu Jul 20, 2006 3:41 pm
According to the Israelis, they were not guilty of terrorism, see, because what they were actually TRYING to do was to commit murder. They were really trying to kill a member of the legitimate and perfectly legal Palestinian resistance to the illegal and illegitimate Israeli occupation. By dropping a 550 lb bomb on a two-story house in the middle of the night. Without warning the civilians who would without a doubt be sleeping inside. Hey, accidents happen...<br><br>The important thing here is: how do the Israelis feeeeel?<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> <br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Family of nine killed as they slept<br></strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>Conal Urquhart in Gaza City<br><br>Thursday July 13, 2006<br>The Guardian<br><br>Awad Abu Salmiah lay in a small ward covered in bandages, drifting in and out of consciousness. He looked around but did not seem to notice the absence of his parents or brothers and sisters.<br><br>The 19-year-old was dug out of the remains of his two-storey house on Wednesday morning, four hours after a 550lb bomb crumpled the building. He does not know that almost all his family is dead.<br><br>Nabil Abu Salmiah, 45, and his wife, Salwah, 38, were killed along with two sons and five daughters, aged from four to 18. Awad and his brother Mohammed, 23, were saved when they were woken by aircraft and went to the balcony to see what was happening. Mohammed was thrown from the balcony while Awad was trapped by falling masonry which left him badly cut and bruised.<br><br>A spokesman for the Israeli army said they did not know there was a family in the house when they bombed it. They said they were trying to kill a group of Hamas militants led by Mohammed Deif, who they have tried to assassinate three times.<br><br>The targets were not in the house when it was hit. The spokesman said they had spotted two cars driving away from the area, fired missiles at one and lost the other.<br><br>Statements from Hamas suggested Israel was correct in believing that the men had been in the area. Some were believed to have been injured as they drove away and were being treated secretly.<br><br>The family were the latest victims in Israel's three-pronged Gaza campaign aimed at securing the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, captured on June 25.<br><br>The death toll is more than 60 Palestinians, including at least 14 civilians. On Wednesday, the Israeli army reoccupied some of the former settlements it left last year. Around 40 tanks held a line from the Kissufim checkpoint, west to the sea.<br><br>Soldiers took over houses along the route and set up sniper positions, preventing any correspondence between two halves of Gaza. Palestinian radio reported that five men had been killed by Israelis in the area.<br><br>Yusri Abu Salmiah, 40, whose brother was killed in the bombing, said Nabil, a lecturer at the Islamic University had been a supporter of Hamas but he knew nothing of meetings being hosted in his house or garden. "My nephew told me that the whole family was fast asleep apart from him and his brother and this is why they were killed," he said. The family were buried by thousands of mourners who paraded through Gaza City.<br><br>Five of the bodies were carried on stretchers, which is normal, but four were placed in boxes because they were so badly dismembered. All that remains of the house is a pile of rubble, surrounded by damaged apartment blocks.<br><br>Around 40 other people were injured,three of them critically. Sadullah Zant, 31, a relative and a neighbour, said he was asleep on his balcony when he heard two explosions within seconds of each other. "My building moved up and down and I heard crashing and screaming. I ran out and I saw people emerging from building covered in blood and dust. People were screaming and you could still hear the jets overhead."<br><br>The death of the Salmiah family is reminiscent of a previous attack in which an Israeli jet dropped a one-tonne bomb on an apartment block four years ago, killing Salah Shehade, the Hamas military leader, and 14 others, including nine children.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1819014,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/intern...14,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
