Israel Matzav

Clarification about yesterday's murders in Gaza

Yesterday, I wrote that I believed that the three children who were murdered in the Gaza Strip yesterday morning were targeted by Hamas. During the night, that post was linked by my friends at Gates of Vienna. When I read what they wrote about my post, I got the impression that they believed that it was immediately claimed that the father was the target and that I thought the children were the target because the father was not in the car.

The initial news reports claimed that Mr. Balousheh was the supposed target of the killing. However, Carl in Jerusalem puts it in even starker terms: “I believe that they were trying to get the kids as a warning to the father and to other Fatah members.”

In other words, they knew the father wasn’t in the car; instead, the targeting of the children was a message to him. And the fact that the message was delivered in a font called Overkill, in a street full of other children, didn’t matter at all. What was important was to deliver the message.

And these people have the gall to complain about Israelis’ targeting of known killers. They are moral imbeciles and that fact is immaterial to them.

And so, I would like to clarify:

The initial reports did not say that they were trying to kill the father - that came out an hour or two later (or more) and sounded more like an excuse than like reality. And if you look at the evidence, it appears unlikely that they were trying to kill the father. If three kids were being driven to school and the father was in the car, the father would have been in the front. But if you look at the car, it's all shot up in back and almost unscathed in the front (there are a lot more pictures out there than what I posted here - look at them). The fourth person killed was a 'bystander,' and not the car's driver was one would have expected to be the case if the children were not the target. That's why I wrote that I believe that the children are the target.

As a parent, there is nothing more painful emotionally than God forbid losing a child. The senior people in the 'Palestinian Authority' are not - for the most part - the demented individuals who proudly send their kids to be suicide bombers. They are rational people who are not in a catatonic stupor from drugs or alcohol, and still have feelings for their children (you will note that they never send their own children to be suicide bombers - this is well known).

I believe the children were the target.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:21 AM