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Israeli airstrike kills pregnant palestinian in gaza { June 22 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2238785,00.htmlhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2238785,00.html
Times Online June 22, 2006
Israeli air raid kills pregnant Palestinian as leaders meet
From Stephen Farrell of The Times in Khan Younis and Rana Sabbagh-Gargour in Amman
The first meeting between Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas today was overshadowed by the death of a pregnant Palestinian woman during a failed Israeli air strike in Gaza.
Mr Olmert, Israel’s Prime Minister, expressed regret to the Palestinian President for the killings of Fatima Ahmed and her brother Zakaria, at the first encounter between the two men since Israeli elections in March.
The death of 14 Palestinian civilians during helicopter attacks in recent days has drawn international criticism of Israel for carrying out air strikes against militants firing rockets into the Jewish state in the crowded Gaza Strip.
Witnesses said today that Mrs Ahmed, a 37-year-old teacher, was killed on Wednesday night during a meal to celebrate the homecoming of her brother from Saudi Arabia after a four-year absence.
A rocket aimed at a car carrying militants of the Popular Resistance Committees crashed through the thin asbestos roof of the poor Ahmed family’s home, 20m (60ft) from the apparent target, killing both of them. Another nine-months pregnant woman was critically injured.
"I was eating when all of a sudden an Israeli missile came inside my house. Stones started falling on our heads. I didn’t know what had hit me," said Abdel Kader Ahmed, 57, their surviving brother.
A day earlier two young children and a teenager died in another failed strike in northern Gaza, and nine civilians were killed on June 13 by missiles aimed at an Islamic Jihad rocket-launching cell.
Kofi Annan, the UN General Secretary, called on Israel this week to respect international law "and to ensure that its actions are proportionate and do not put civilians at grave risk".
But Major General Eliezer Shakedi, commander of the Israeli Air Force, insisted that air strikes were the most accurate way of striking militants who have escalated rocket attacks on Israel.
"We have to make a great effort to try everything possible to avoid hitting civilians," he told Israel Army Radio.
"We have to fight terrorism and we are doing it . . . this is the most accurate and the best possible alternative without entering a broad and very significant operation."
Mr Olmert’s office said that he had expressed his "deep regret over the death of innocents" to Mr Abbas, but added: "There is no moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel and Israeli army operations, because the army does not intend to hurt innocents."
This cut little ice in Khan Younis today, where Mrs Ahmed’s husband Nidal Wahba pointed to the injuries of his two young children, Khaled and Farah.
"My son is two years old. Was he firing rockets against Israel?" he said bitterly.
However, he said that he did not want to see either Palestinians or Israelis suffer, and his mood was reflected in the funeral.
Over breezeblock headstones speakers talked more of the need for national unity among Palestinians than revenge.
"Now in our situation all our efforts should be united as Palestinians under one banner," said one speaker.
Mr Abbas has hinted at progress in recent talks to persuade his Islamist rivals Hamas, who won recent parliamentary elections, to sign up to a deal recognising Israel, and softened his own rhetoric.
Last week he condemned one air strike as "state terrorism" but said today: "Such attacks only bring the two people apart".
The breakfast in Petra, hosted by King Abdullah, was the two men’s first meeting since Mr Olmert won Israeli elections in March. Onlookers said that they shook hands, embraced and exchanged jokes about the World Cup before agreeing to meet again in the coming weeks.
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