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TITLE: Valentine's Day |
AUTHOR: Edna Yaghi |
PUB: |
DATE: February 16, 2001 |
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"On Valentine´s Day, Mossud Ayyad, 50, a man close to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, was buried. He was slain when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a volley of rockets at his car north of Gaza the day before. Not long after Ayyad was assinated, Bilal Ramadan, 13, was shot in the chest and killed when he was walking home from school. Just before he was buried, Bilal´s little sister Sausan bent down to plant on her brother´s forehead, a final farewell kiss. No one told little Sausan that today was Valentine´s Day. No one told her that it was a day of love and red roses. No one told her that she and other Palestinians had to bear their pain, suffering and deaths alone while Arabs in happier countries celebrated a day that meant nothing to her. South of Gaza, near the Jewish settlement of Gush Kitif, Palestinian children who were playing in the street near their homes ran for cover in Khan Younis refugee camp from shelling by Israeli soldiers. Also in Khan Younis, the Israeli army not only shelled civilian targets, but also threw tear gas tainted with nerve gas at the civilian occupants of the camp. More than 40 people were treated for gas-related injuries and another 50 were hurt by flying bullets and shrapnel when the area was under the Israeli bombardment." END |