|
“What Are They? Cats?” Gaza Buries Three More Palestinian Children
 |
|
The one-ton bomb dropped on the crowded Gaza residential area killed 11 children
|
GAZA
CITY, July 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Dalia, Mohammed and
Ayman Matar died early Tuesday, July 23, along with another 15 people,
when an Israeli warplane dropped a one-ton precision bomb on their
neighborhood in order to kill a wanted Hamas resistance leader.
The
three children’s charred corpses were only recovered Wednesday, July
24, in time to receive a day-late burial.
The
other 12 victims of the Israeli strike, all civilians except for
Hamas’ military leader Salah Shehada and his bodyguard, were buried
Tuesday in Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan cemetery.
On
Tuesday, the hospital thought they had actually buried the three Matar
children - aged five, four and 18 months respectively - along with the
other victims, among whom was their mother and two other siblings,
including two-month-old Dunia Matar.
At
Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, Dr. Muawia Hassanein, the head of the
emergency ward, said charred remains had been mistakenly identified as
the children’s.
But
the Matars received a proper burial Wednesday.
After
the bodies were recovered from under the rubble and taken to Al-Shifa
hospital’s morgue for identification, they were loaded on a truck
bound for Sheikh Radwan cemetery.
But
Dr. Mohammed Matar, a relative of the family, would not have it this
way and made a fuss in Dr. Hassanein’s office, insisting that the
three small white bags containing the bodies be transported by
ambulance.
Meanwhile,
Yussef and Mohammed Abu Khusa, the cemetery gravediggers, had already
dug three holes and were waiting for the bodies to arrive.
 |
|
More children lie injured in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza |
“There
won’t be a funeral for them, we’ll just put them in those holes
and close the grave,” said Yussef, unmoved.
“I’ve
been in this job for the past five years and, yes, I have to say
business got better since the intifada started. I’ve buried at least
50 people since then,” he added.
Children
from the neighborhood had gathered to wait for the bodies’ arrival,
as if it were the only distraction in their otherwise uneventful
summer besides the occasional Israeli air raids and Palestinian
attacks on illegal Jewish settlements here.
In
the background stood a war-scarred husk of a concrete building.
“It
was bombed on December 12, 2001. It used to be the preventative
security building. Two people died and are buried there,” said
Ahmed, 10.
And
Yussef remembered having buried the two men who fell that day. He
pointed to their graves, affirming Ahmed’s story.
“I
do everything from digging the hole, to ordering and placing the
headstone and get a hundred dollars per body,” he said.
“But
I rarely put the body to rest, that’s the family's job. It’s very
personal, you understand,” he added.
Two
hours later the bodies of the three Matar children had not arrived and
the small gathering started wondering whether the burial would take
place Wednesday after all.
Suddenly,
machinegun shots could be heard at a near distance.
“They’re
coming, they’re coming,” rejoiced Tamer, 12.
 |
|
Palestinian boys walking past the rubble of the destroyed Gaza neighborhood |
A
crowd of 300 men soon filled in the cemetery, 100 of them wearing the
checkered headband of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah
movement. They fired their guns in the air.
Dr.
Matar was among them, in civilian clothes, but carrying an M-16 on his
right shoulder.
“We
thought it was unacceptable that these kids wouldn’t get a proper
funeral just because they were thought to have already been buried,”
said Emad, 25, a Fatah follower and one of the heads of the movement's
student union.
“What
are they? Cats? No, they deserve respect and honor like the big
leaders,” he said.
“The
Matar family is supporting Fatah, that’s why the faction’s members
are here. They will also pay for the funerals and burial,” said
Yussef.
Gunmen,
children and relatives pressed themselves around the grave hole to lay
the bodies wrapped in the Palestinian flag to rest.
“I’m
glad they got a decent burial after all,” said the other
gravedigger, Mohammed.
|
