Shelter from the siege

[madeline_con]

Shelter from the siege
Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 13 June 2008

Tuesday morning at 9:00am, 220 Palestinian children gathered at al-Sherouq and al-Amal children's club in southern Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp. Dressed in colorful clothes accompanied by cheerful smiles, the children lined up in rows to listen to their trainer. The children were attending their first day of a three-week-long program of training and activities at the club. "The circumstances around Palestinian society, particularly, the growing violence at many levels, have prompted us to hold this program to train children how to have less violent trends," explained Najwa al-Farra, chairwoman of the club.

Funded by the Culture and Free Thought Society in Khan Younis, the program "attempts to decrease a great deal of the tension that many of our Palestinian children experience, especially because of sporadic Israeli gunfire and domestic violence," al-Farra added. She said that over the past year Palestinian society has seen increasing social and economic problems due to the Israeli blockade and repeated Israeli army invasions, which have had a negative impact on the children's way of life and behavior. The Khan Younis area borders Israel, and has been the site of several invasions by the Israeli army over the past year. During this period, a number of young girls from Khan Younis were killed by Israeli army artillery fire. The latest casualty was nine-year-old Hadeel al-Semairy, who was hit by Israeli tank fire in front of her home on 5 June.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9612.shtml

[Vegasaurus]

1. Yes, the Palestinian children suffer

because their leadership cares more about killing Israelis than it does about their welfare.

If the Palestinian leadership of Hamas cared about the children, they would stop firing rockets, shelling and trying to bomb Israel and Israelis at every possible opportunity.

Since they refuse, and have claimed that annihilating Israel is their greatest goal, the Palestinian children suffer.

Blame Hamas.

They have wrought misery on their people.