Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

[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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[madrchsod]

1. the israeli government is afraid to show the world what they have done

i hate to think what may happen once the truth is shown.

[High Plains]

2. Ho-hum, they're only Palestinians.

Not "worthy victims."

Just like Salvadorans and Guatemalans and Nicaraguans murdered with US money in the 1980s were not worthy victims.

The US/Israeli war machine rolls on...

[ellisonz]

3. Is any other media outlet reporting this?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. The Independent, via B'Tselem and the UN

While the school killings represented the single biggest loss of life since the Israeli offensive began on 27 December, details are emerging of other incidents involving high numbers of civilian casualties. An Israeli human rights agency, B'Tselem, and the UN's Office for the Co-ordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) independently released reports that more than 30 members of the same extended family had been killed on Monday during the shelling of a building in the northern Zeitoun district of Gaza City.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/massacre-of-innocents-as-un-school-is-shelled-1230045.html

And the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/world/middleeast/06scene.html?em

[ProgressiveMuslim]

5. Further reporting on the incident..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4162193/Gaza-medics-describe-horror-of-strike-which-killed-70.html

Gaza medics describe horror of strike which killed 70
Growing evidence emerged today of the bloodiest single incident of the Gaza conflict when around 70 corpses were found by a Palestinian paramedic near a bombed-out house.

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 9:25AM GMT 08 Jan 2009

Mohammed Shaheen, a volunteer with Palestinian Red Crescent, was in the first convoy of ambulances to reach the site of the blast in Zeitoun since it was first occupied then shelled by the Israeli army.

His testimony confirmed accounts, first reported in The Telegraph, from survivors of the extended al Samouni clan who said they feared between 60 and 70 family members had been killed.

"Inside the Samouni house I saw about ten bodies and outside another sixty,'' Mr Shaheen said.

"I was not able to count them accurately because there was not much time and we were looking for wounded people.

"We found fifteen people still alive but injured so we took them in the ambulances.

"I could see an Israeli army bulldozer knocking down houses nearby but we ran out of time and the Israeli soldiers started shooting at us.

"We had to leave about eight injured people behind because we could not get to them and it was no longer safe for us to stay.'' Mr Shaheen was in a convoy led by a jeep from the International Committee of the Red Cross that made its way down war-damaged tracks past demolished houses to the town of Zeitoun.

Concerns had been growing that Zeitoun had witnessed massive civilian casualties after surviving members of the Samouni clan reached Gaza City three days ago.

They said that after the Israeli army first took the town on Saturday night soldiers had ordered about 100 members of the clan to gather in a single house owned by Wael Samouni around dawn on Sunday.

At 6.35am on Monday the house was repeatedly shelled with appalling loss of civilian life.

A handful of survivors, some wounded, others carrying dead or dying infants, made it on foot to Gaza's main north-south road before they were given lifts to hospital. Three small children were buried in Gaza City that afternoon.

According to the survivors between 60 and 70 family members had been killed by shrapnel and falling masonry.

Convoys of ambulances twice headed to the area to look for wounded but they were driven back by Israeli shooting.

During today's three hour lull in offensive operations by Israel, the ICRC led the rescue convoy in although it took a long time for the convoy to make its way down war-damaged.

According to Mr Shaheen, the death toll was as high as described by the survivors.

[Marrah_G]

6. Israel will say it is a lie or that all the people were "terrorists"

The rest of the world will look away and none of us will ever know the truth about what is happening there.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Horrible, This war needs to end.