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Mother of five killed by Israeli artillery fire close to Gaza buffer zone

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A mother of five was killed by Israeli artillery fire when she went to fetch her two-year-old son from outside her village home close to the "buffer zone" created by Israel along its border with Gaza.

Three of her relatives were wounded in the shelling earlier this week, but Red Crescent ambulances were not permitted to reach the family for several hours.

According to the woman's husband, Nasser Abu Said, 37, the attack began without warning at about 8.30pm on Tuesday with two shells being fired as the family of 17 sat outside their house in the village of Johar a-Deek. Apart from Nasser and his 65-year-old father, the entire group was women and children.

"It was completely quiet, there were no rockets being fired or we wouldn't have been sitting outside," he said, referring to Qassam missiles launched by militants into Israel.

His sister and his brother's wife were injured by shrapnel. The family moved indoors and called an ambulance. "About 10 minutes later the ambulance called back to say the Israelis had refused them permission to come to the house," said Nasser.

His wife Ne'ema, 33, soon realised their youngest son, Jaber, was not among the children she was attempting to calm down, and was probably asleep on a mattress outside that he often shared with his grandfather.

As she went to fetch the toddler, another shell landed. "I called to my wife three times," said Nasser, who realised his father had also been badly injured in his leg and stomach. "I could hear small noises coming from her. I knew she was dying."

Via Palestinian co-ordinators, the IDF told the family that anyone going outside the house would be shot dead. Nasser began to tend to his injured father, knowing he could not reach his dying wife.

"I was holding myself in, especially in front of the children," he said. The children were crying hysterically and some had wet themselves, he added.

After two hours, an ambulance was allowed to reach the family. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which investigated the incident, said Ne'ema and her wounded relatives were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, where it was confirmed she had died from shrapnel wounds.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said it had identified a number of suspects close to the border. "An IDF force fired at the suspects and identified hitting them," it said. The incident was being investigated, it added, but declined to say why ambulances had not been allowed to reach the family.

Since the three-week war in Gaza that began in December 2008, the IDF has continued to fire on Palestinians it suspects of launching rockets at Israeli civilians or attempting to attack Israeli forces. It created a 300m-wide buffer zone on Palestinian farmland adjacent to the border with Israel and warned it would shoot anyone seen within the forbidden area.

The Abu Saids say their land is not used by militants to fire rockets as it is open ground in full view of an Israeli watchtower at the border 400m away.

In the first five months of this year, 22 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the buffer zone, according to the PCHR. The IDF says one soldier and a Thai farmworker were killed and two soldiers lightly wounded in militant attacks in the first half of this year.

Palestinians have been unable to harvest their crops in the zone, which has swallowed about 30% of Gaza's arable farmland. The Abu Said family have lived in the area for 40 years, but have had to abandon the part of their land inside the zone. "Everyone is afraid to come to this house," said Nasser.

The house, isolated down a rutted track, was riddled with shrapnel damage from Tuesday's shelling, and dried blood still lay in the sand where Ne'ema had been killed.

The PCHR condemned the shelling which, it said, "constitutes the highest degree of disregard for Palestinian civilians' lives". This was not an isolated incident but "part of a series of continuous crimes committed by the [Israeli military]".


Mother of five killed by Israeli artillery fire close to Gaza buffer zone | World news | guardian.co.uk
 
R.I.P., I can't believe ambulances to tend the innocent wounded were halted.
 
Going after children can indeed be a dangerous occupation in Gaza. We lost a student doing the same

attended Tom's public memorial service a year later, having discovered the student photographer had been more than "wounded". During a Palestinian demonstration against IDF violence, three children had come under fire from an Israeli position. Tom ran forward to move the children to safety and was shot in the head. I was curious to know what had compelled this young Englishman to step into mortal danger. The eulogies inched me closer to understanding Tom, but raised a second question: what could possibly have been gained by shooting him?

Simon Block on why he chose to write about Thomas Hurndall, the British student shot by the IDF | World news | The Guardian
 
Our peace and quiet in the US is a luxury around the world that many will never have - because others don't have it in their interest.

So tragic.
 
The Guardian's piece seems to be missing crucial information in what was a lightly-covered story by the international media. For example, if one went to Xinhua to find another account of what happened, that publication reported:

The security sources told Xinhua that Israeli tanks, positioned on Gaza-Israeli border to the east of Al-Burij refugee camp, fired two shells at a populated area on the outskirts of the camp, targeting a group of militants...

Cross-border clashes took place between the militants and the Israeli forces in which the Palestinian fighters detonated explosives, and the clashes obstructed the ambulances from evacuating the casualties quickly, an ambulance driver said.


The bottom line:

1. Israel had fired at terrorists, but a shell or shells might have gone astray.
2. Israel didn't block ambulances; ongoing fighting made it impossible for ambulances to respond.

It is tragic that innocent people were killed and hurt. However, blame rests with the terrorists. Terrorist activity is what made it necessary for Israel to try to target those operatives.
 
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The Guardian's piece seems to be missing crucial information in what was a lightly-covered story by the international media. For example, if one went to Xinhua to find another account of what happened, that publication reported:

The security sources told Xinhua that Israeli tanks, positioned on Gaza-Israeli border to the east of Al-Burij refugee camp, fired two shells at a populated area on the outskirts of the camp, targeting a group of militants...

Cross-border clashes took place between the militants and the Israeli forces in which the Palestinian fighters detonated explosives, and the clashes obstructed the ambulances from evacuating the casualties quickly, an ambulance driver said.


The bottom line:

1. Israel had fired at terrorists, but a shell or shells might have gone astray.
2. Israel didn't block ambulances; ongoing fighting made it impossible for ambulances to respond.

It is tragic that innocent people were killed and hurt. However, blame rests with the terrorists. Terrorist activity is what made it necessary for Israel to try to target those operatives.


Israel then should make an effort to evacuate innocent children, women, and elderly civilians to safety before retaliating militarily against "terrorist operatives" hiding in the midst of densely populated urban areas.
These people are trapped with their children and have no way out, and no: Israel does not need to retaliate at the expense of these innocent people.
Their lives should take priority over shelling "terrorist operatives".
Israel should rescue and evacuate to safety all the innocent civilians who are willing to come; then they would be morally justified in firing into Gaza.

Otherwise, we just have the Branch Davidian Compound situation all over again.
We did not forgive our own government for that.
Why should we excuse another government doing it, on a much grander scale?
Innocent children out of the way FIRST.
THEN kill bad guys.
That is the order of priorities for any civilized people.
 
The Guardian's piece seems to be missing crucial information in what was a lightly-covered story by the international media. For example, if one went to Xinhua to find another account of what happened, that publication reported:

The security sources told Xinhua that Israeli tanks, positioned on Gaza-Israeli border to the east of Al-Burij refugee camp, fired two shells at a populated area on the outskirts of the camp, targeting a group of militants...

Cross-border clashes took place between the militants and the Israeli forces in which the Palestinian fighters detonated explosives, and the clashes obstructed the ambulances from evacuating the casualties quickly, an ambulance driver said.

That's pretty much the same way Reuters and even Haaretz have covered it.
The Guardian always has to be unique on Israeli issues.
 
Otherwise, we just have the Branch Davidian Compound situation all over again.
We did not forgive our own government for that.
Why should we excuse another government doing it, on a much grander scale?

What exactly is it that Israel is "doing on a much greater scale", again?
 
The Guardian's inaccurate report only shadows tragidies like this one, this is no newspaper, its a Palestinian propaganda tool. Lets start by the simple fact that Israel isn't using any artillery units around Gaza strip today.
 
LOL

Israel shot an artillery shell into a populated area and killed a mother of five and somehow it's not their fault?
 
The Guardian's inaccurate report only shadows tragidies like this one, this is no newspaper, its a Palestinian propaganda tool. Lets start by the simple fact that Israel isn't using any artillery units around Gaza strip today.
This is not a Palestinian propaganda tool.
 
LOL

Israel shot an artillery shell into a populated area and killed a mother of five and somehow it's not their fault?

Thought so, its funny when Israel shells "insurgents" they tend to kill civilians instead.
 
Thought so, its funny when Israel shells "insurgents" they tend to kill civilians instead.

Must be the damn "spotters" they're not doing their job properly :doh
 
LOL

Israel shot an artillery shell into a populated area and killed a mother of five and somehow it's not their fault?

You cannot shoot an artillery shell if you do not posses artillery in the area and as far as I know the IDF deploys artillery around the strip only when an intense conflict is developing. Those were tank shells, theres a big difference between tanks and artillery guns, both in the way they are fired and their damage. The outcome is, however, unfortanate.
 
You cannot shoot an artillery shell if you do not posses artillery in the area and as far as I know the IDF deploys artillery around the strip only when an intense conflict is developing. Those were tank shells, theres a big difference between tanks and artillery guns, both in the way they are fired and their damage. The outcome is, however, unfortanate.
That still doesn't do anything regarding the fact that Israel chose to fire an artillery shell in a populated area.
 
That still doesn't do anything regarding the fact that Israel chose to fire an artillery shell in a populated area.

Are we talking about this particular incident? If so mybe you'll get it in the 3rd time, it wasn't artillary fire, those were tanks.
 
I'll agree with degreez on this issue, since Israel chose to fire artillery shells in too a populated area, and didn't evacuate that area like they should then the death of the civilians in that area are their fault alone. Israel should always think of civilian populations first, and foremost we don't forgive the unidentified states when they kill civilians why in the world should we forgive Israel for killing civilians?
 
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Moderator's Warning:
The thread has been closed due to trolling. In the future, infractions will be levied for similar offenses.

If one examines the articles posted, it is clear that the tragic accident did not result from artillery shells. Instead, it resulted from tank shells. There is a difference between tank-fired shells and artillery.
 
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