Mahmud, 10, went looking for songbirds ... and died in hail of bullets

[Aidoneus]

Mahmud, 10, went looking for songbirds ... and died in hail of bullets
By Justin Huggler in Shajiyeh, Gaza Strip
08 November 2003

Mahmud al-Qayed was out doing what he did every Friday - catching songbirds in cages to sell in the markets of Gaza. But yesterday the remote olive groves where the birds nest led him close to the fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel. Too close for the soldiers guarding the fence.

They shot Mahmud, 10, four times, killing him as he tried to run.

The boy's father, Mohammed, was with him, and, at the funeral, he told how he took the bloodstained sweater from his son's dead body, and buried his face in it.

Mahmud was one of a group of about 20 - the rest were adults - who ventured out to the fence to catch the songbirds, which can fetch good money in the markets. There are plenty of witnesses who saw the group on their way to the fence, and confirm that they were there to catch birds.

But the Israeli army said that it had spotted three people laying what it says were electric wires and tubes used in explosives, and that is why it opened fire. According to the witnesses, what the group were laying were the cages that trap the birds.

This was not the first time a birdcatcher has been killed next to the fence here. Mahmud was the fifth to die here since the intifada began in 2000. He was the youngest, but before him a 15-year-old and a 13-year-old had also been killed.

--snip--

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=461648

[Scurrilous]

1. Another victim...

..of the world's most moral army. Very sad.

[bluesoul]

2. More innocent

die...:-(

[TimeLord]

3. They shot Mahmud, 10, four times, killing him as he tried to run.

I don't know how anyone can defend this.


It is totally unacceptable whether our government, the Chinese, or Israel...totally unacceptable..

Mohammed said: "I took his sweater. I hugged it, then I buried my face in his blood. It was wrong to kill him. He was young, he was no threat, he just wanted to catch a bird. Where are the human rights? Where are the children's rights?

"They kill children. That is wrong."

This will be justified somehow. That's ok. We all have to wonder, though, what makes us really human. The fact that we are so different? Or the fact the we are the same?

This hurts me.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[number6]

5. another victim of IDF terror..

..

[lumpy]

6. This sort of random killing is reprehensible

and inexcusable and the killers should be brought to justice. But justice is a foreign word in this region. Certainly blunts the crying out of Israelis over suicide bombings. The situation has detiorated into insanity and pure evil.