BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip, June 10 (Reuters) – “Don’t leave me alone.”

With those parting words, and amid a sea of tears from thousands of mourners, 7-year-old Huda Ghalya bade farewell on Saturday to her mother, father and three siblings killed when a sunny day on the beach turned into the child’s darkest day.

The five family members were among seven Palestinians who died when an explosion tore through the beach in northern Gaza on Friday as Israeli artillery shelled the coastal area used by militants to fire rockets into Israel.

She was swimming when her family died yards away onshore.

“Father, father, forgive me,” Huda cried as she kneeled to kiss her father’s face at the stark cemetery in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
today.reuters.com

Paralyzed for life
The tangle of tubes and the artificial respirator attached directly to her windpipe cannot hide her beauty. A little 3-year-old girl lying in the pediatric intensive care unit at Sheba Medical Center, Maria Aman’s sad, brown almond eyes are wide open, her lips murmur in a whisper: “Food, I want to eat,” but all her limbs are paralyzed, forever. Not far from there, in an intensive care unit at Ichilov Hospital, lies her uncle Nahed, age 33 and father of two, who is in even worse condition: He is not only on a respirator and completely paralyzed, he is being kept asleep.

No, these are not the victims of this weekend’s operation, but their predecessors – victims of an airborne assassination in Gaza three weeks ago yesterday, an operation that shocked almost nobody here in Israel. The events of this past weekend should not come as a surprise to anyone: The deterioration has been going on for weeks, and the question that should be asked is not what Israel is doing to counter the Qassams, but what it is not doing. An army that fires missiles at busy streets and tank shells at a beach cannot claim there was no intent to harm innocent civilians.

US approves annual aid to Israel
The House of Representatives has approved the allocation of USD 21.3 billion in foreign assistance during 2007, including USD 2.46 billion to Israel, the largest sum received by any country.

The annual assistance package to Israel is comprised of USD 2.34 billion in military aid, in addition to USD 120 million in standard economic aid.

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