Palestinian rocket kills 2 Gaza girls

[Mosby]

A rocket apparently fired by Palestinians on Friday struck a house in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinian sisters aged five and 13, Palestinian medics said.

Hamas police said they were investigating the cause of the blast in Beit Lahiya village in northern Gaza, which medics said seemed to be due to a rocket aimed at Israel that had misfired.

Earlier in the day, a seriously wounded 35-year-old Palestinian man, hurt by a misfired rocket on Tuesday, was taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment. Two children were also reportedly wounded in the Tuesday attack, but it is unclear whether they were the man's children.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3644809,00.html

[LeftishBrit]

1. Awful.

[Kurska]

2. War never changes

It always seems to be the children who suffer most

[oberliner]

3. Hamas is despicable

The desire to shoot rockets at Israeli civilians is so great that they are willing to put the lives of Palestinian children in danger.

This is not the first time that Palestinian rockets have ended up falling short of their targets in Israel and killing Palestinian children.

Anyone who cares an ounce for the well-being of the children of Gaza or for human rights generally ought to be shining a light on the monstrous crimes this terrorist organization has committed both against Israelis and against its own people.

Thankfully groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have occasionally attempted to alert the world to the many human rights violations committed by Hamas.

It's also encouraging that recently UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and UN Humanitarian Chief, John Holmes have made their voices heard on this subject as well.

What a sad story this is. Perhaps it will lead to some soul searching on the part of the leadership of Hamas to reconsider their terrorist ways before more innocent children are killed.

[Vegasaurus]

4. I think there is no deeper evil than Hamas

It's crazy that anyone thinks there is "negotiating" with this bunch of murderous thugs, who refuse to protect their own citizens, and put the youngest and most innocent at the greatest risk, by choosing terrorism over peace.

The best thing in the world would be a coup to get rid of every last one of those hideous terrorists.

[cali]

5. I disagree. First, I believe that thinking in the black and white

terms you exhibit, is a dangerous mode of operating. Evil is a word I avoid using. It solves nothing to run around indiscriminately accusing people of evil.

I have no use for Hamas, but they are the democratically elected representatives of Gazans.

[Vegasaurus]

23. Who cares if they were "democratically elected"?

Hamas is insane, and is worse than the worst of the dictatorships across the middle east and Africa.

Being elected clearly does not indicate that they can govern, and having a vote does not a democracy make, as the actions of Gaza show.

THose citizens have no "democratic" rights.

And Hamas IS evil, since not only do they support annihilating another country and all its inhabitants, but they show absolutely no compassion or care for the welfare of their own citizens.

That is the opitome of evil.

I stand by my words.

[LeftishBrit]

24. They are very evil. But there are deeper evils, e.g. the Taliban, Mugabe, Pinochet, etc.

'The best thing in the world would be a coup to get rid of every last one of those hideous terrorists.'

Well, possibly - assuming you mean an internal coup, not one imposed by the USA or other outsiders. But sometimes you can get rid of the current hideous rulers, only to get something even worse. E.g. what's happening in Iraq is worse than life under Saddam.

I would prefer emergence of a real political alternative, and massive and permanent electoral defeat for Hamas; and court trials and punishment for those known to have committed/organized murders.

[cali]

6. This is every bit as tragic and awful as if those two children had

been killed by Israeli fire. It's interesting to note that this thread is being largely ignored. Had it been the case that these two children were killed by Israeli forces, that would not be the case. That brings up the question: Are these deaths more acceptable because of the circumstances?

[azurnoir]

7. No they are not, however there are a couple of posts here

that seek to politicize the girls deaths which is why I did not post earlier, the deaths of the two sisters are tragic no matter how they died.

[oberliner]

11. What about consequences for the killers?

Do you believe there should be any? If so, what?

[azurnoir]

12. Just who are the "killers"? n/t

[oberliner]

15. The people who shot the rockets that killed the children nt

[Violet_Crumble]

8. I agree with yr first sentence. The rest is rubbish...

Gosh, I've been at DU since 2002 and I didn't realise that I was 'largely ignoring' the many, many threads I read where I don't post anything in them, either because someone else has already said it (in this thread posts #1&2) or I don't have anything to say and would prefer to just read the threads. There's many threads where there's not a whole torrent of responses, and some of them have been ones I would have thought would have produced some discussion, but they don't and I don't lose any sleep over it or get all holier-than-thou coz that's just the way discussion forums are...

So in answer to yr question: the answer is no and I don't really understand why anyone would think it would be otherwise. All deaths of all children in this conflict are horrific and inexcusable, and you'll never have seen me saying anything to the contrary...

[pelsar]

9. the answer is a yes..but

the same can be said for deaths within israel, when people israelis are killed by "their own." The way people are killed does in fact have an affect upon the society around it..and there is a "pecking order" or outrage.....as seen by the headlines.

a black child killed by a white man in the US will be headline news... that same child killed by a drug addicted black neighbor probably wont even rate a couple lines somewhere in the same paper....

It may not take away from the fact that the kids are dead, nor from their intrinsic worth, nor from the loss that the family now has to bear...but us humans in our societies do have judgement calls on "our own" vs the other.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. I don't agree with that...

Yr talking in yr post about how the media reports on deaths, using the US as an example. Not being an American, I don't know if that example is true or not, but over here the ethnicity of a child-killer doesn't even get mentioned and there's no higher or lower coverage based on the ethnicity of the killer.

When it comes to "our own" vs the other, can't say that's something I suffer from*. For example, I found the Christmas Eve murders in LA every bit as horrific and upsetting as if they'd happened in Sydney to fellow Australians....


* I should point out that I was called a traitor and unAustralian by a friend last week because when the talk got round to cricket, I admitted I always support England when they play Australia because I was brainwashed by the British media before the last Ashes....

[azurnoir]

14. You are right if a murder of any sort happens it is

generally reported you will find in the US domestic murder is by far the most common with interracial murder being far less common.

[Lithos]

18. It is true

Here in Austin, the only reason a death of a homeless person made the news was that she was considered one of Austin's more loved personalities. Without that touch or newsworthiness, her death would have gone completely unnoticed. Best as I understand the story, she was the 136th homeless person to die of exposure over the past 12 months, but the first to ever get any media attention.

If you want a more flagrant example, look at Natalee Holloway, the woman kidnapped on Aruba. There really was nothing special about her, but you will never see this kind of attention for kidnapping. Hell you hardly ever see an amber alert for a baby or elderly of color.

As for Cricket, well the USA just won the America's division earlier this month. One year, the ashes will be here in the US which I think will be fitting enough.

L-

[azurnoir]

19. You are very very right

while I was concentrating on race murder in the US I forgot homeless on homeless murder which rarely makes the news as with your example of homeless people who die of exposure

[pelsar]

22. maybe its geography...

we get religion, skin color, origin, accent, dental history, shoe size and anything else to make it newsworthy or not....and to make it more "exciting"

the best of course involve ashkenazi and Sephardis ...or perhaps ethiopians and russians....always good for our stereotypes....

but the same killing the same, simply doesnt have the impact, we dont get to berate how awful our society is when that happens.

but i believe the lack of interest in the OP, given that the deaths were "non political" and were obviously a mistake, is the reason there is little interest or controversy here.

[azurnoir]

13. You do not read US papers much do you? n/t

[pelsar]

20. i grew up in detroit..

and in fact still read the news from there.......

[azurnoir]

16. Seeing as how the article names no partucular group

and Hamas police are investigating one would suppose that those responsible will be punished and properly so/ Conversely do you believe IAF should be punished every time some Lebanese farmer gets killed by a UXB?

[oberliner]

17. I'm so glad that the Hamas police are investigating!

I'm sure they will be shocked to find out that there are people launching Qassam rockets in Gaza. No doubt they will put a stop to that activity right away so that no more innocent people are killed or injured.

[pelsar]

21. off topic...

i believe the topic is the newsworthy and controversy that surrounds deaths.....

War has a different set of rules and low level war has a confusing set of rules, however both contain as an objective killing...so the rules are much different than that from withins one own society. So the answer is simply yes since all deaths should be investigated and since all missions have a a debriefing to determine what happened, its an integral part of the process. etc.

as far as hamas investigating..it would seem unreasonable for them to punish the shooters since they are using rockets that though they are "accurate enough to aim, they are not accurate enough to hit the target"...and that is their standard missile today. At best the shooters probably had a manufacturing problem

[azurnoir]

25. Well if I read the headline right

Israel has successfully killed almost as many "Hamas" members in one fell swoop than in "Hot Winter" last year, wonder how many more "Hamas" will benefit from Israeli attention?