Region | Palestinian Territories
We want to be martyrs too, say youngsters at funeral
A dozen small boys, not yet teenagers, were among relatives gathered at a funeral in Gaza on Friday for a young man killed in clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:33 May 3, 2009
Beit Lahiya, Gaza: A dozen small boys, not yet teenagers, were among relatives gathered at a funeral in Gaza on Friday for a young man killed in clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops.
Asked if they would learn from the death of 19-year-old Mohammad Maher Shahine, killed while watching Thursday's fighting as Israel stepped up an offensive in the strip, the boys answered almost with one voice.
"No. We want to be martyrs too," they said, seemingly oblivious to the danger of following around bands of gunmen as they battle more powerful Israeli troops, who are backed by tanks and helicopters.
"What is there to learn?" asked Jamal Shahine, 42, a cousin of the deceased as dozens of relatives gathered under a mourning tent. "All these boys just want to fight."
The streets of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and other Gaza districts were filled with funerals on Friday as many of the 20 Palestinians killed on Thursday, the biggest death toll from a day of violence in nearly two years, were buried.
Militants from various factions, including Fatah, the ruling Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad, fired bullets into the air as the bodies of militants and civilians, wrapped in faction flags, were taken from morgues to mosques and on to burial.
The crowds watching the funerals said most of those killed on Thursday were civilians but as the bodies were carried past, mourners also described many as fighters killed in battle.
"He was a Qassam [home-made rocket] launcher," explained one mourner as the body of Ahmad Abu Askar was born aloft through the crowd, saying he and two others had tried to fire a rocket at Israel.
Mohammad Maher Shahine wasn't a fighter. Instead he had left his job at a shop and jumped on his bicycle when he heard about clashes between militants and Israeli troops in Beit Lahiya.
"His father tried to tell him not to go, but he didn't listen," said Jamal Shahine, the cousin.
He said Mohammad was killed in an Israeli missile strike on a house that also killed three others and wounded seven.
"They were all civilians in the street," he said.
Israel said the strike killed only militants hiding in the house. Its offensive, aimed at forcing gunmen to free a captured soldier and stop rocket fire, began last week.
During Thursday's clashes, which came as Israeli troops battled to build a buffer zone to prevent the rocket fire, children followed Palestinian fighters at every turn, greatly increasing the risk of civilian casualties.
The boys at Mohammad's funeral, taking place under a green awning provided by Hamas, said they would like to go and watch the next clashes, if there were any.
The only one who was silent was Mohammad's brother, 16-year-old Mahmoud. "My brother is dead, what can I say," he said.
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