Gaza: War on the Horizon

(Gaza City, 27 April 2002) -- I heard the shooting from the balcony of my apartment. Ismail, Yusuf, and Anwar tried to infiltrate the Netzarim settlement in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night. They may have carried knives with them. That's what Abdul Aziz Rantissi said, a leader of Hamas in Gaza. They weren't suicide bombers as the New York Times claimed; they were kids in the 9th grade doing something they hadn't carefully thought through.

It was stupid and it was a total waste of their young lives, which is why Hamas issued a statement calling on children not to act as martyrs for Palestine until they were ready; until they were old enough. There were three funerals in Gaza Thursday morning, April 24th, and the fathers of each of the boys spoke about their sons to my friend Robert and me. The fathers didn't even know the three boys were friends and each of the funerals took place separately in different parts of the city, the families unknown to each other; the grief equally palpable in each location.