Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family [View All]

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Some of the Samouni family died from shrapnel wounds and others from being crushed by falling masonry.

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 8:30PM GMT 06 Jan 2009


But the one death that sticks in Nael al Samouni’s mind is that of the relative he claims was shot by an Israeli sniper.

"We ran from the shelling and there were people everywhere, members of my family, but one fell down injured,'' Nael, 36, said.

"I heard the shot as I ran but there was nothing I could do.''

With Israel barring foreign journalists from reaching Gaza, it is impossible to verify the account of what happened to the Samouni family emerging from eyewitness testimony provided by survivors.

But different survivors all gave near identical accounts of how the Israeli army arrived at dawn on Sunday in the area of Zeitoun where the Samouni family have lived for generations.

In what the United Nations fears could be the bloodiest single attack of the Israeli assault, as many as 60 members of the extended Samouni family were killed near their homes in the Gazan town of Zeitoun while nine more died in hospital.

Dozens of bodies are believed to remain under the rubble of a large house hit repeatedly by Israeli shelling in the incident.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has formally requested permission from the Israeli army to visit the scene of the attack to establish the exact scale of the slaughter.

Israel has so far not granted permission to the ICRC due to ongoing fighting.

Palestinian ambulances have also tried to reach the scene but it remains too dangerous. Several ambulances have been hit by Israeli shelling and at least seven paramedics killed.

"There are many houses where we live and they ordered us into the house of my brother, Wael,'' Nael said.

Wael, 39, another survivor, said as many as 100 members of the clan crowded into his single-storey home with strict orders from the Israeli soldiers not to move.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4143303/Israel-strike-kills-up-to-60-members-of-one-family.html

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