Gaza kids don't play

Children in Gaza don't play hide 'n seek Photo: AFP

Roy Peled, ynetnews, 03/10/07. According to army, children killed by IDF are part of Palestinian war machine. When Palestinian children are killed in what the IDF refers to as "Qassam-launching sites," the explanation is that "the Palestinians are well aware that those are areas they must not enter." Yet "forbidden areas" have been arbitrarily defined by Israel and attributed to dozens of square kilometers in the Gaza Strip. Contrary to common perception, many Palestinians have no idea where these border lines are. Children who walk around the sand dunes in the afternoon certainly have no idea. And an update: As this article was being published, the IDF investigation showed that the three Palestinian kids who were killed were playing catch. Imagine that. Palestinians? Catch? Children? The surprises just never end.

"Palestinian children are not made up of the same fabric as Israeli children, who at times walk around for fun and at times look for dangerous adventures, mostly due to boredom. When a Palestinian child is killed by the IDF, he certainly did something very wrong.The Palestinians make cynical use of children" – according to the IDF, the children killed in Gaza this past week arrived at the scene for one of two reasons: Either they were part of a particularly young terror cell, or they were sent there by terror groups as human shields.

And an update: As this article was being published, the IDF investigation showed that the three Palestinian kids who were killed were playing catch. Imagine that. Palestinians? Catch? Children? The surprises just never end.

The writer is a member of the Meretz directorate