First the missiles, then the lies

Don't Israelis ever tire of the bloodshed and the lies?

The Palestinians on Sunday blamed Israel, saying it fired the missile at the house. Israeli military officials, citing intelligence, said a Palestinian anti-tank missile inadvertently hit the house, located on the outskirts of Gaza City near the front lines.

Evidently not.

But much to their chagrin, eyewitnesses from the massacre that killed a 6yr girl, her mother, and her brother lived to recount the grisly details.

Saturday evening - after clashes between Israeli tanks and Palestinian gunmen subsided - Amna Hajaj and several of her children went into the backyard to enjoy tea and corn on the cob, said her 23-year-old daughter Iman. Iman and other family members were in the house, watching TV.

Apparently, Israelis think that that simple past-time is too good for Palestinians.

There was a large boom, and Iman rushed into the yard. Her mother had been struck in the head, and her 22-year-old brother Mohammed was sprawled on the ground. Her little sister Rawan lay lifeless, bloodied in the back and head, Iman said.

A medic, Iman tried to tend to her four wounded brothers, ages eight to 26, but could do little without supplies. Iman said the ambulances were slow to arrive, with drivers reluctant to enter a combat zone.

Imagine how this poor young woman felt as she scrambled to save her other bleeding siblings, as her mother and two younger siblings lay dead in the yard.

On Sunday, 8-year-old Ibrahim Hajaj lay wincing in a bed in Gaza City's Shifa Hospital with two bandaged legs, a broken knee and a face covered by shrapnel marks.

He had not been told that his mom and little sister were dead.

"Where is Rawan?" he demanded to know, and asked repeatedly to be taken home. His brothers Khaled, 14, Shaaban, 26, lay unconscious in nearby beds.

A fourth brother, 12-year-old Rani, said he heard an Israeli aircraft just before the missile hit. Just afterward, he saw one brother thrown onto a metal fence and people running. "My father picked me up and gave me to my sister" to be evacuated, he said.

This corresponds with Israel's initial response yesterday.

The Israeli military, initially denying that any shells had been fired, later admitted a missile had missed its target in an open field and landed on a street in the Shajaya district on the outskirts of the city, near the Karni border crossing.

But, that was then - before they had time to think. This is now:

Israeli officials said the only military activity in the area was a successful airstrike on a cell firing anti-tank missiles nearby. "There was no tank or artillery fire in the area at the time," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman. "Based on the initial investigation, we have eliminated our involvement."

As usual, first the missiles, then the lies - the very definition of obscene.