A father opens a plastic bag: 'This is my son,' he says, killed by an Israeli shell

[umbertino]

Palestinian death toll continues to mount as Israel's ground invasion into Gaza carries on

 

 

•  
• • Peter Beaumont in Gaza
  •  
  • theguardian.com, Friday 18 July 2014 10.26 EDT

 

 

 

The house of the Antez family in Sha'af looks undamaged from the outside. But the men milling around it have the dazed faces of grief that tell a different story.

 

Inside, the hole punched by the tank shell that hit the house, after clearing the retaining wall, is visible about 3m (10ft) off the ground.

 

It seems a small thing – a hole the size of a toaster. But the shell travelled through four walls, scattering pieces of shrapnel that have been gathered and placed to one side.

 

There were 60 people from three families sheltering inside, some under the stairs, some in a corridor leading to a half-finished room.

 

Following the shell's path through the house, three pools of blood punctuate where three people died – two of them children.

 

Salem Antez, 29, approached with a purple plastic bag and opened it, its contents terrible.

 

"This is my son," he said and nothing else, tears tracking down his face. Mohammad, another family member explained, was two. The other dead were Abed Ali, 24, and Mohammad Ibrahim, 13. Salem bent back to his task – his bag becoming a little heavier. "They hit us at 8.45pm," an uncle said. "We had just finished our Iftar meal and were gathered here for safety."

 

The morning after the night of the artillery barrage that launched Israel's ground offensive into Gaza drew back the veil on the consequences – a bleak procession of the dead and injured from the coastal enclave's south through its eastern border regions up to the north.

 

The deaths in the Antez family came as Palestinian health officials said 27 Palestinians, including a baby, two children and a 70-year-old woman, had been killed since Israel poured ground forces into the densely-populated strip of 1.8 million Palestinians on Thursday night.

 

Across Gaza's neighbourhoods on Friday morning, the sound of shell fire and bombing continued, as naval gunboats, which had been shelling the coast, moved closer to the shore.

 

Outside his house in Zeytoun – one of 14 neighbourhoods told to evacuate civilians by 8pm on Thursday night – Fouad Hananah said artillery had hit the street only five minutes before. His home is only 1.2 miles (2km) from the border with Israel.

 

"A lot of families left two days ago. From my window you can see the border. We could hear the sound of the Israeli tanks and see the dust they make when they are moving," Hananah said.

 

"Last night was terrible. The shelling didn't stop and we could see tracer fire as the soldiers came in."

 

"I put all the family in one room," said one of his neighbours, Mohammad Ashour, 55. "The children were crying and asking if they were trying to hit the house."

 

Even closer to the border is the Hamas-run al-Wafa hospital, a rehabilitation centre for the severely ill. On Friday – the road outside showered in glass and concrete – it finally evacuated its 17 patients, health staff and a group of foreign human shields, after coming under fire during the bombardment. At the door two paramedics said the hospital was locked, with entry now forbidden.

 

Further north, in Beit Lahia, the Kamal Adwan hospital is still operating, even as the sound of continuing explosions reverberates in the distance. This area also felt the brunt of the initial assault.

 

An ambulance pulled up and its door opened, revealing more dead children, two stacked together on a single stretcher, scorched and mutilated.

 

They were taken to a small ward where another body already lay covered in a blanket. Once names were supplied the ruined shells of people became human: three children from the Musallem family, Mohammad, 15, Walla, 13, and Ahad, 11 – killed in their bedroom by a tank shell in the village of Al Nada Tawas, close to the Erez border crossing.

 

Mohammad Zahar, the ambulance driver who brought them in, said the girl, Walla, was alive when he picked her up but died on the road to the hospital.

 

"I went out 40 maybe 50 times in the night last night, mainly to rescue people from the smoke." He has barely slept in the last three days.

 

Their mother, Muna, arrived soon after with her three surviving children. They sat on the hard plastic chairs in casualty and cried, united in a place impenetrable for now by words of consolation.

 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/father-gathers-body-dead-son-two-plastic-bag-gaza-shelling

 

[DiiDii]

It starts much too early in these young lives.... for both sides.,  the children being taught to kill., and

the children being killed....       

 

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/05/06/Hamas-TV-Tells-Young-Children-To-Shoot-all-the-Jews

[umbertino]

I'd like to believe that enlightened minds on both sides will find a honorable way  for both sides to put a  definitive end to all this.  2 REAL Countries at last.

 

 One can dream.....We'll see.

Edited July 18, 2014 by umbertino

[gymrat76541]

Sad fact is: You have only yourself to blame because you elected Hamas to run the strip!

 

:(

[Maggie123]

I'd like to believe that enlightened minds on both sides will find a honorable way  for both sides to put a  definitive end to all this.  2 REAL Countries at last.

 

 One can dream.....We'll see.

 

Agreed Umberto... It will remain a dream though...

until Nutanyahoo receives enough intense pressure from the international community to make him stop

 

The provocations of this war and this genocide of so many innocent Palestinians will force that to happen...

he has gone too far for too long.

 

Only those who have not paid attention the last couple of months would be in support of the Israeli Guberment's agenda.

 

The rest of the world has seen through what he is saying and doing... and they are saying "ENOUGH"!!!

Edited July 18, 2014 by Maggie123

[sportfisher]

[Indraman]

I have been following this situation for 25 years...I have yet to see how the Palestinians joining with Hamas, an outspoken and horrifying terrorist organization, proxy sponsored and supported by Iran, both of which have openly called for the destruction of Israel as a state, could in any way move the peace process in any other direction than where the situation currently stands. Man, what a run-on sentence that was, but I believe it accurately captures how I see things.

 

Indy

[Maggie123]

Yeah the "Israel Firsters" don't like the truth such as what this article shows brought out into the daylight.

 

You can give out all the rubies you want... won't stop the truth from being shouted out from the roof tops.

 

No doubt... most Americans will not help because of the years of propaganda they have been fed...

but they are NOT... end all... be all... anymore... nor is our guberment.

 

The rest of the world WILL step in and help. Thank God!!!

[gymrat76541]

"The rest of the world WILL step in and help. Thank God!!!"

 

Really????????

 

Hamas is achknowledged as a terrorist organization worldwide!

No one will support a terrorist organization!

While the deaths are unacceptable to everyone around the world, the acceptance of "Hamas" will never happen!

Every incident in the Gaza Strip should be investigated & the truth found but following a terrorist organization hurts the Palestinian cause in so many ways!

 

[Maggie123]

I didn't neg you Gymrat... Instead I brought this info brought in from  Flatdawg over for you to read.

 

 

How Israel Helped Create Hamas
In the 1970s, Israel Saw Hamas' Founders as Allies

By Pierre Tristam

Back then the secular Palestine Liberation Organization was waging a terror campaign against Israel, which it vowed to destroy. There was no contact between Israel and the PLO, at least not officially. But Israel looked for Palestinians who didn’t align themselves with the PLO. It found them, in Gaza, in an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood—deeply pious Palestinians who were opposed to the PLO’s secular outlook, and who had adopted the Brotherhood’s motto: “Islam is the solution. The Koran is our constitution.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Higgins in January 2009 provided a concise history of the serrated Hamas-Israel relationship in the context of both sides’ mania for outsmarting and outlasting the other. “A look at Israel’s decades-long dealings with Palestinian radicals -- including some little-known attempts to cooperate with the Islamists,” Higgins wrote, “reveals a catalog of unintended and often perilous consequences."

Waltzing with Hamas

The Palestinian group that would begin calling itself Hamas in 1987 was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a half-blind cleric partially paralyzed by a childhood sports accident. In the 1970s, Yassin’s interest was to turn Palestinians toward the Koran and to find their way through it, rather than through the PLO. Israel saw an opportunity to battle the PLO from within its own Palestinian ranks by openly supporting Yassin and his followers.

Israel’s assumption that Yassin could be a viable alternative to Yasser Arafat was the same sort of miscalculation the United States committed in Iran in the 1970s, when the CIA cultivated radical Islamist groups there should the regime of the Shah of Iran falter or fall. In 1979, the regime did fall. The CIA had misread the forces of political Islam in Iran. It had also misread its reach: Political Islam wasn’t a fad. It was the future.

Continue at: http://middleeast.about.com/od/israelandpalestine/a/me090126.htm

[gymrat76541]

I didn't neg you Gymrat... Instead I brought this info brought in from  Flatdawg over for you to read.

Seriously it matters NOT who created Hamas! 

Heck, America created much worse!

They are terrorist! Buttom line - cut & dry.

Elect terrorist as your leadership & you throw away any credibility you have!

[sportfisher]

I didn't neg you Gymrat... Instead I brought this info brought in from  Flatdawg over for you to read.

why would you bring flatdawg hamas propaganda anywhere..............again you prove to be clueless and out of touch with reality.

[Maggie123]

Seriously it matters NOT who created Hamas! 

Heck, America created much worse!

They are terrorist! Buttom line - cut & dry.

Elect terrorist as your leadership & you throw away any credibility you have!

 

The Hamas leaders that were elected are NOT terrorist Gymrat.

 

Bibi wouldn't negotiate a "Two State Solution" until all the Palestinians were represented together... Hence the joining of the two Palestinian governments... when the Palestinians did that... he started up with his propaganda rhetoric about Hamas and started this war and the following genocide of so many innocents that he HATES... He was feeling pushed into a corner to NEGOTIATE.

 

Thing is the US was not ever serious about facilitating the "negotiations" in the first place.

 

As I said it will take the rest of the international community to step up...because the US is Israel's best friend...

 

Their one and only friend I might add.

[gymrat76541]

The Hamas leaders that were elected are NOT terrorist Gymrat.

 

Bibi wouldn't negotiate a "Two State Solution" until all the Palestinians were represented together... Hence the joining of the two Palestinian governments... when the Palestinians did that... he started up with his propaganda rhetoric about Hamas and started this war and the following genocide of so many innocents that he HATES... He was feeling pushed into a corner to NEGOTIATE.

 

Thing is the US was not ever serious about facilitating the "negotiations" in the first place.

 

As I said it will take the rest of the international community to step up...because the US is Israel's best friend...

 

Their one and only friend I might add.

Argue the point all day long if you wish! 

Fact - Hamas is a terrorist organization known worldwide! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

WOW

Hamas (Arabic: حماس‎ Ḥamās, "enthusiasm", an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah, "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni Islamic^[7] organization, with an associated military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,^[8] in the Palestinian territories.

Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and a number of Western and non-Western governments; The United States,^[9] Canada,^[10] the European Union,^[11][12] Jordan,^[13] Egypt^[14] and Japan classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.^[15] Other states, however, including Iran, Russia,^[16] Turkey,^[17] China^{[18][19][20][21]} and many Arab nations do not. Since 2007, Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip, after it won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections^[22] and defeated the Fatah political organization in a series of violent clashes.

Edited July 18, 2014 by gymrat76541

[Maggie123]

Maybe you haven't noticed Gymrat... ANYONE Who Fights Against The "Colonialist Claws" Is Labeled A Terrorist.

 

Then of course we have the "real terrorist" that are created BY the "Colonialist" like ISIS.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Maggie123

[dog53]

Agreed Umberto... It will remain a dream though...

until Nutanyahoo receives enough intense pressure from the international community to make him stop

 

The provocations of this war and this genocide of so many innocent Palestinians will force that to happen...

he has gone too far for too long.

 

Only those who have not paid attention the last couple of months would be in support of the Israeli Guberment's agenda.

 

The rest of the world has seen through what he is saying and doing... and they are saying "ENOUGH"!!!

 

Sorry mag your the one not paying attention 

Seriously what about the poor  innocent israelis being killed along with the poor innocent palestinians.

There deaths dont count?  He offered them a cease fire THEY declined.  This man had to put his son in a bag not because israel wanted him dead . But because Hamas places their rockets near the children. They blow up the rockets and the children get blown up with them then they use the pic`s to say Oh look at what they did.  And YOU fall for it.  Mag they are killing their own children. How can you possibly defend a people that kills their own children.    

[Maggie123]

Sorry mag your the one not paying attention 

Seriously what about the poor  innocent israelis being killed along with the poor innocent palestinians.

There deaths dont count?  He offered them a cease fire THEY declined.  This man had to put his son in a bag not because israel wanted him dead . But because Hamas places their rockets near the children. They blow up the rockets and the children get blown up with them then they use the pic`s to say Oh look at what they did.  And YOU fall for it.  Mag they are killing their own children. How can you possibly defend a people that kills their own children.    

 

How many Israelis have been killed?

The rest of what you said is pure BS.

[dog53]

How many Israelis have been killed?

The rest of what you said is pure BS.

 

Research it kiddo Its not BS

The place their rockets next to schools

daycare centers old folks homes.

Its what they do. You dont have to believe it.

But just cause you dont doesn't mean it isnt so. 

Israel anti missile defenses is the only thing that keeps the numbers low mag.

 

If they dont want their people to die Its easy.

Stop shooting at them and they will stop shooting back.

your falling for this propaganda that somehow its ok to try to kill people but when the people your trying to kill kill you instead then lets all hate the people you were trying to kill for fighting back.

Your definitely on the wrong side of the fence. You should be riding the fence in the middle asking both sides to knock off their insane desire to kill one another and quit sacrificing their children to use as a propaganda tool. 

[Maggie123]

How many Israelis have been killed?

[Thaiexpat]

As a Marine the the "Root" way back in 82, I saw how the Israeli's operated. Took a round or 2 from a building complex, brought up a tank, loud-speakers shouting out something and a few minutes later-BOOM! M-60 carries a 90mm main weapon. Point-blank range does a lot of damage to a building. NEXT! Point-blank on to the next door and down-the-line it went.

Massive retaliation in response to a few shoots. Is it fair? Don't know. However, I do know that people HIDING in their homes are not the enemies of Israel till their children are MURDERED. Seems to me that they are making more future terrorist.

As for Gymrat's reply: "We've done worst then that..." Therefore, the US is the biggest terrorist organization in the world? For once, I'd agree with you!! Israel is #2.Dunno, just saying....

[Hooter]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/09/the_questions_never_asked_about_palestine.html

[Maggie123]

Thank You Thaiexpat.

 

To answer the question of how many Israelis have been killed since this began ... the answer is 2.

 

1 civilian from rocket fire... one soldier from "friendly fire"... so the answer is 1 Israeli has been killed by Hamas.

 

Over 260 Palestinians have been killed... over 2000 have been wounded...

 

No Israeli soldiers or citizens have been wounded that I have read about to date.

 

 

As for the "peace agreement" offered by the US puppet regime of Egypt...

they did not even bother to talk to the Hamas government.... that is NOT a "Negotiation".

 

If their was any integrity in the Israeli government or their military... they would fight their war like men.

They would not be bombing women and children indiscriminately... this is NOT collateral damage... it's genocide. 

 

I have been watching the US mainstream media reports about this only for as long as I can hold my nose.

You will never get any honest unbiased reporting about this from them. Let me suggest just one of many good sites.

It has so much unbiased information not only about Israel and the Palestinians, it also reports about US, Ukraine and Iraq.

 

https://news.vice.com/

 

 

[Hooter]

Thank You Thaiexpat.

 

To answer the question of how many Israelis have been killed since this began ... the answer is 2.

 

1 civilian from rocket fire... one soldier from "friendly fire"... so the answer is 1 Israeli has been killed by Hamas.

 

Over 260 Palestinians have been killed... over 2000 have been wounded...

 

No Israeli soldiers or citizens have been wounded that I have read about to date.

 

 

As for the "peace agreement" offered by the US puppet regime of Egypt...

they did not even bother to talk to the Hamas government.... that is NOT a "Negotiation".

 

If their was any integrity in the Israeli government or their military... they would fight their war like men.

They would not be bombing women and children indiscriminately... this is NOT collateral damage... it's genocide. 

 

I have been watching the US mainstream media reports about this only for as long as I can hold my nose.

You will never get any honest unbiased reporting about this from them. Let me suggest just one of many good sites.

It has so much unbiased information not only about Israel and the Palestinians, it also reports about US, Ukraine and Iraq.

 

https://news.vice.com/

 

Except for Faux, I always thought the mainstream media (ABC, NBC, etc.) disliked Israel just like you, Maggie. They always report on the unfair casualty numbers, as well as the misery, pain and suffering the Palestinians have to go through. 

[Maggie123]

Except for Faux, I always thought the mainstream media (ABC, NBC, etc.) disliked Israel just like you, Maggie. They always report on the unfair casualty numbers, as well as the misery, pain and suffering the Palestinians have to go through. 

 

If you had read my post you would have seen that I am denouncing the Israeli government and their military leaders.

Don't even try pulling that anti-Semitic card with me Hooter... folks are done with being "shamed" into silence about this.

 

If I were to denounce Hitler... would you then try to tell me I hate all Germans?

 

No... NONE Of The US MSM Outlets Report The Truth About Israel... Iraq.... Ukraine...

Nor Do They Give Accurate Reporting About The Events That Happen Here In The US.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Maggie123

[Maggie123]

As a Marine the the "Root" way back in 82, I saw how the Israeli's operated. Took a round or 2 from a building complex, brought up a tank, loud-speakers shouting out something and a few minutes later-BOOM! M-60 carries a 90mm main weapon. Point-blank range does a lot of damage to a building. NEXT! Point-blank on to the next door and down-the-line it went.

Massive retaliation in response to a few shoots. Is it fair? Don't know. However, I do know that people HIDING in their homes are not the enemies of Israel till their children are MURDERED. Seems to me that they are making more future terrorist.

As for Gymrat's reply: "We've done worst then that..." Therefore, the US is the biggest terrorist organization in the world? For once, I'd agree with you!! Israel is #2.Dunno, just saying....

 

Thank You Thaiexpat... I should have quoted you in my post because this got left on the last page.