Israeli 'retaliation' in Gaza comes down to killing children who are playing football

A man died on Tuesday from injuries sustained in an Israeli attack on Gaza days earlier, a medical official said. Muhammad Zeyad Abdullah Quno, 20, was wounded when Israeli tanks fired shells at Gaza City on Saturday, killing four and injuring at least 25 people. He passed away on Tuesday from his injuries, Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman of Gaza's health ministry, told Ma'an.

 

The attack on Saturday occurred after an Israeli commander ordered a jeep into the territory of the Gaza strip and the jeep was hit by an anti-tank missile, wounding four soldiers.  Israeli newspapers reported that after that Israeli forces 'hit terrorist targets inside Gaza'. It is worth reading the report that the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) wrote the other day, specifying the kind of  'terrorist targets' that were actually hit: 

PCHR:

Over the past 72 hours, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have escalated their aerial and ground attacks against the Gaza Strip.  Five Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, have been killed, and 52 others, including 6 women and 12 children, have been wounded.  Four of these deaths and 38 of the injuries resulted from an Israeli attack on a football playground in al-Shoja’iya neighborhood east of Gaza City.  Additionally, 2 members of the Palestinian resistance were killed, and some civilian facilities were destroyed or damaged.  According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 15:30 on Saturday, 10 November 2012, Israeli military vehicles stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired an artillery shell at a number of Palestinian children who were playing football at al-Mentar Hill east of al-Shoja’iya neighborhood, which is east of Gaza City and nearly 1,500 meters away from the border.  As a result, 2 children were instantly killed:

1- Mohammed Ussama Hassan Harara (16); and

2- Ahmed Mustafa Khaled Harara (17).

Following this attack, a number of Palestinian civilians, who were gathered to mourn a bereaved in the house of the Harara family, rushed to the area, where the IOF immediately fired another 3 shells.  As a result, 2 Palestinian civilians were instantly killed:

1- Ahmed Kamel Al- Dirdissawi (18); and

2- Matar ‘Emad ‘Abdul Rahman Abu al-‘Ata (19). 

Additionally, 38 civilians, including 8 children, were wounded; the wounding of 10 of these civilians was described by medical crews as being serious. 

 

Funeral of 13-year old Ahmed Abu Daqqa, who was killed while playing football.

Earlier, on Thursday evening, 08 November 2012, the IOF killed a Palestinian child during an incursion in the ‘Abassan village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis.  According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 16:30 on Thursday, as a result of the indiscriminate shooting by IOF military vehicles that had moved into the ‘Abassan village, 13-year-old Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa was seriously wounded by a bullet to the abdomen.  At the time he was shot, Ahmed had been playing football with his friends in front of his family’s house, located nearly 1,200 meters away from the area where the IOF were present.  He was evacuated to the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis, but he was pronounced dead 15 minutes later. 

On Saturday and Sunday, 10 and 11 November 2012, Israeli warplanes targeted a number of members of the Palestinian resistance.  As a result, 2 members of the Palestinian resistance were killed in 2 separate attacks in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.  They were identified as:

1-Mohammed Fu’ad ‘Obaid (22), from Jabalya; and

       2- Mohammed Sa’id Shkoukani (18).  

In addition to the attacks that killed or wounded people, PCHR reports that Israel also hit and partially or totally destroyed: an office of the Electricity Distribution Company, the water tank of the Kuza community, a metal workshop, a poultry farm, a brick factory and an agricultural storage facility.