umkahlil

Maan News reports on the ongoing Gaza massacre:

"17-year-old Jacqueline Mohammed Abu Shbak saw her 14-year-old brother Iyad struck down by an Israeli artillery shell. As she rushed towards him Israeli soldiers shot her in the heart."

This horrifying image reminds me of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby's "Memorial on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Kafr Qasem Massacre":

"Inside the village of Kafr Qasem, not far from his home, the eight year old Talal Isaa was shot by Israeli soldiers. It was said that he went out to get a stray goat.* It may be that no one imagined that the curfew meant death for a child just yards away from his home. When his father, Shaker Isaa, heard the shots and saw what happened he dashed out to his son. He was also shot. Then, Talal's mother, Samia Isaa ran out to them and she was shot. Lastly the teenage daughter of the family, Noora Isaa, ran out and was also shot. The grandfather, Abdallah Isaa, then 90 years old, was left alone in the house watching. Only Talal died, the rest of the family, wounded and bleeding, remained on the street till the following morning.

Palestinian lives continue to be cut short because of these "strangers from foreign lands who come carrying the Bible in one hand and a gun in the other." (Raja George Mattar)

Illustration: Samia Halaby's "Talal."