In their simple house made of metal sheets, the mother of Abu Muatek was sitting with her three children for having their breakfast, holding her one year old baby between her arms, listening to their daily complaints, and lovely quarrels, trying to comfort and keep them away from the sound of the Israeli shelling close to their house in Beit Hanoun northern of the Gaza strip.

This mother did not know that their clock stopped clicking not by their creator but by their enemy, she did not know that it is the last breakfast she would prepare for her children, she did not know that it is the last time she would hold her baby, she did not know that she would never share her children their future as they also would not share their mother her oldness. Unlike any other mother she refuses to leave her children alone on their trip, she did not want to stop holding her baby and insisted to accompany them as one family in life and in death.

But like many other cases who were killed by the Israelis, she did not know that she would be the hero of a thrill movie, and that she would be leaving this world with her four children, leaving other two girls tasting the bitter taste of loss and recalling the images of their mother and little sisters pigmented in blood and pieces of their bodies. An arterially shell –accidentally as the Israelis said!!- hit the house, and shattered the dreams of the little kids of having a peaceful breakfast, and a joyful afternoon, killing them in a very brutal way without having any mercy to their tiny bodies, or their baffled eyes.

Talking again and again about what the Palestinian have to face in Gaza, their sufferings, and the deliberate killing of their families in Gaza become a banal topic after awhile that moves no body, specially with the deep silence of both the international and the national community towards such devastating events. The fact that each Israeli operation will bring a new catastrophic event that talk about itself, draws its pain, and expresses the deep hatred, and inhumanity that our enemy adopts towards us, force me to write about these families and their tragedy, with one hope that my words will make a difference, and help in preventing such events in the future.

We, the Palestinians, have to realize that the roles of the Israeli killing game have changed, where there is no respect for human lives, there is no count for human values, it is the deep devil inside each one of us, however, the devil inside the Israelis have grown, and grown, so fast with an appetite of feeding on the sufferings of my people, and celebrating each life he harvested without any clue of having a second thought about those innocent children, mothers, young chaps, families that he have killed.

As I talked before about Al Athamna family also in Beit Hanoun, Abu Ghalya family in Jabalia, and Abu Muatek family in Beit Hnoun, a question is left without having an answer, not about those who were killed, and rest for ever, but about those who left behind, and who have to live the memories of their experience with every moment of their lives, day and night, even when time passes so quickly that things sounds fine for them, but down deep in their sub conscience, they will always keep these bad memories, and forced themselves to believe -as we all do in such experiences the big lie when we convince ourselves that things will be ok, and life will be continued-. The truths that we have to face that these individuals will never be the same, and will never live a normal life. So we have to be prepared when time will come to free the monster that the Israelis have created in each detail of these stories, and we the Palestinian have to face.

April 30, 2008 By Najwa Sheikh Gaza 30.04.2008

URL: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/04/30/no_mercy_no_values

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The World must Step in

MIFTAH

This morning, seven residents of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun were killed in Israeli shelling. The tank shell directly hit a home in the Azbat Abed Rabbo quarter of the town, taking the lives of an entire family. Khadra Abu Muteq was killed along with her four children: one year old Musaab Abu Muteq, Hana’ Abu Muteq, 3, Saleh Abu Muteq 4, and Rudeineh Abu Muteq, 6. One teen, 17-year old Ayoub Atallah was also killed by the shelling and his friend Mutassem Sweilem injured as they were walking to school. Nine others were injured in the attack, several of them in serious condition.

An Al Quds Brigades activist, 23-year old Ibrahim Hajouh, the apparent target of the attack, also died in the Israeli shelling after Israeli forces invaded Beit Hanoun at dawn today. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the violent clashes that ensued.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy MIFTAH is appalled by today’s events and by Israel’s apparent disregard for the sanctity of human life. MIFTAH not only strongly condemns the attack, which is a flagrant violation of humanitarian law and human rights, but demands that the international community intervene to halt the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians. The silence of the international community and the United Nations has allowed Israel to believe it can act with impunity in the name of its security even when this means the killing of innocent women and children.

MIFTAH believes it is time that Israel is held accountable in international courts and in the corridors of the Security Council for the crimes it commits against Palestinians. Similar to the crippling sanctions the UN imposes on other countries that fail to comply with international law, Israel should not be immune to such measures. If the international community continues to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed against the Palestinians, such as the killing of mother and children today, the Palestinians will continue to be targets of indiscriminate Israeli military attacks, which far too often claim the lives of innocent bystanders.

MIFTAH would also like to extend its deepest condolences to the Abu Muteq family for their horrendous loss. On this occasion, we also call on those Israelis of conscience to pressure their government into changing its policies in the Gaza Strip and working seriously towards a just and comprehensive solution that would lead to an end to Israel’s illegal occupation and the establishment of a viable and independent Palestinian state.

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© 2008 MIFTAH

SOURCE: http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=16778&CategoryId=2

URL: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/04/29/the_world_must_step_in

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