ZGram - 7/8/2002 - "Another atrocity report from Jenin"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

July 8, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Information like this one, below, needs to be spread far and wide. 
This is real evidence of monstrous cruelty inflicted on the hapless 
Palestinians the world can no longer ignore!

[START}

July 08, 2002

Cameraman records the slaughter of bicycling children

 From Stephen Farrell in Jenin

THE tank pulls into view, its barrel pointing straight down Jasmine 
Street towards the children cycling back from the shops after buying 
a chocolate bar.

On a nearby rooftop an amateur cameraman stops panning across the 
Jenin skyline and films the group of stick figures moving quickly 
away from the Israeli war machine. Suddenly a plume of orange erupts 
from the barrel and the cameraman dives for cover as shrapnel slams 
into the second-storey wall just below him.

A hundred yards away teenagers sheltering behind walls look at the 
shell bouncing down the street, slamming first into the tarmac then 
into a low wall, where it explodes, blowing 11-year-old Tariq Abu 
Aziz off his bicycle and ripping apart his two brothers.

This is the first filmed record of the incident in which, 
Palestinians say, Israeli forces opened fire on civilians who 
ventured out into a quiet middle-class neighbourhood of Jenin on June 
21, mistakenly believing that the curfew had been lifted.

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the Israeli Defence Minister, has apologised 
and the Israeli Army has announced an inquiry, conceding that initial 
inquiries suggested that its forces "erred" by firing two tank shells 
to disperse curfew-breaking Palestinians while its troops searched 
for a bomb factory near by.

Limping past the bloodspattered wall where his brothers Jamil, 13, 
and Ahmed, six, were killed, Tariq winces in pain after three 
operations to repair his punctured stomach, kidneys and spleen.

"We heard the earlier gunfire and we were running away. Some hid 
behind buildings and I was cycling in front, with Ahmed in the middle 
and Jamil at the back," he said, pointing to the spot in the dusty 
road. The first sign of trouble, he said, was a white car that turned 
into the street moments earlier, its horn blaring.

"Suddenly there was an explosion and a cloud of black smoke. I was 
knocked off my bike. I was dizzy, but I got up and walked towards my 
house. I knew my brothers were injured, but I didn't know how badly."

Jamil, witnesses said, lay dying in the street calling: "Dad, Dad." 
Ahmed was killed instantly, both his legs, an arm and his intestines 
strewn across Jasmine Street. It was only two weeks later, just 
before his discharge from hospital, that Tariq found out that his 
brothers were dead, although he had long suspected, after listening 
to indiscreet nurses pointing to "the brother of the two martyrs". In 
the corner of the family courtyard lie three bicycles, Jamil's orange 
mountain bike barely scratched, Tariq's red machine with its saddle 
punctured and Ahmed's tiny purple minibike, its handlebar snapped 
off. He was buried with his chocolate bar in his hand.

The boys' father, Yousef, and mother, Hamda, can scarcely bear to 
watch the video, now worn out with constant playing for relatives.

"This is a catastrophe," says Yousef, who adds that the Israeli 
authorities have not contacted him once. "Two of my children killed 
and a third on the verge of dying. Why?"

[END]

( Source:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-3-350200,00.html )