Palestinian Children in the crossfire

Of the 933 Israelis killed in the past four years, 117 were under 18, many of them blown up by suicide bombers on buses or in cafes. Of the 3,111 Palestinians who have died since 2000, 652 were under 18, many shot while throwing rocks at heavily armed Israeli soldiers. But while the number of Israeli deaths has dropped in the last year, partly due to the new security fence in the West Bank, the toll among Palestinian youth remains high. In October, no children died from terror attacks in Israel. But 13 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers, 11 of them in the Gaza Strip. Among the victims: Imam al-Hams, a 13-year-old girl who wandered near an Israeli military outpost in southern Gaza on Oct. 5. Her family said she was going to school; soldiers said they thought she was planting a bomb. The soldiers fired repeatedly even after one remarked that she was just "a little girl" who appeared "scared to death." Then, as seen on a tape obtained by an Israeli TV station, the company commander charged Imam as she lay still, pumped at least a dozen bullets into her body and announced he had "verified the kill." The commander, who was suspended, is charged with obstruction of justice and illegally using a weapon. His action outraged not just Palestinians, but also many Israelis. "The ease with which commanders accept the killing of children and innocent civilians demeans the character of Israeli society," editorialized the newspaper Haaretz. [more]