Seven Shocked in Sderot, and other Stories from Gaza
In keeping with this paltry track record, the only damage caused by the Qassams launched this week at Sderot was the aforementioned shocking of the seven residents. To avenge this grave aggression, the Israeli army resumed a brutal week-long siege on the town of Beit Hanun, which claimed, by the end of the week, eight Palestinian lives and dozens of injuries. (Among those dead were three children and one woman). To further punish the Palestinians for having so cruelly shocked the seven residents of Sderot, the Israeli army sealed off the entire town from the rest of Gaza, destroyed large areas of agricultural land, razed to the ground 22 homes, and demolished the entire civilian infrastructure of the town. According to a recently-published PCHR report, the Israeli troops also seized a number of homes and transformed them into military posts from which they proceeded to shoot at passing Palestinian civilians. It is hard to know what is the saddest part of this story: the pathetic attempt to end a brutal military occupation with ‘flying irons;” the disproportionality of the response; the routine collective punishment of innocent civilians; the impossibility of keeping track of the rising casualties on the Palestinian side; or the ease with which the Israeli press and public mourn the shock caused to the residents of Sderot while ignoring entirely the blood and the rubble and the tears in the neighboring town of Beit Hanoun.
In Memoriam
• 'Ali 'Abdul Hamid Abu 'Olba, 10, hit by a live bullet to the abdomen.
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