Family taken out in air strike
2006-06-08 08:44
Gaza City - What began as a joyful family trip in a new car came to a devastating end when an Israeli missile, aimed at a Palestinian militant, hit a Mitsubishi as it drove through Gaza.
Three generations - a grandmother, mother and son - were killed, and a four-year-old daughter and uncle lay paralysed in Israeli hospitals.
Israel agreed on Wednesday to pay the medical bills, although the family has been barred from visiting the hospitals, with the exception of another uncle.
The paralysed girl's father, 28-year-old Hamdi Amen, can give only long-distance comfort, with the uncle holding a phone to her ear.
"She hears me and my uncle swears she recognises me. I tell her 'my bride, I love you. I bought you toys. There is new furniture in your room, be strong,"' Amen said. "But I have never heard her voice. Every minute is like a year."
Civilian casualties
In six years of fighting, dozens of Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israeli air strikes aimed at militants, and hundreds of Israelis have been killed in Palestinian suicide attacks.
Last month's killings of the Amen family were the first civilian casualties since Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz, a political dove, took office in May.
Although Peretz hasn't halted Israel's policy of hunting down and killing militants, he did order an investigation into the Amens' killing and agreed to pay their doctor bills, gestures that were almost unheard of under his predecessor, Shaul Mofaz.
Islamic Jihad commander killed in strike
On May 20, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a car in Gaza City, killing Mohammed Dadouh, the top military commander of the militant group Islamic Jihad.
It was a missile fired moments earlier that shattered the lives of the Amen family.
Hamdi Amen was sitting in the back seat of his uncle's new car, his wife and mother squeezed next to him. His two-year-old son, Moeman, was perched between his legs while four-year-old daughter Maria danced to the car's radio between the two front seats.
Nahad Mahani, the 34-year-old uncle, was eager to show off the new car he had bought just the day before.
Boom shook the car
Suddenly, a boom shook the car. At first, Amen thought it was a flat tyre. Then he saw the blood.
"I got out of the car. There was no one in the streets. It was me, the car, and my family," Amen said, recalling his desperate screams for help.
Then another car blew up down the street, and Amen realised it was an Israeli missile strike. The second explosion killed Dadouh.
Gathering his courage, Amen ran to get his family out of the car.
"I saw my Mom. She was dead. Her brain was sticking out of her headscarf ... I kept pushing it in," Amen said, bursting into tears.
His six-year-old son, Mohanad, had been killed, along with his wife, Naima, 27. His daughter and uncle were badly wounded. Of the eight people in the car, only Amen, his toddler son and another uncle were unharmed.
- AP