Running With Scissors
So maybe that school was onto something when they banned playing tag:
The three Palestinian children killed in Gaza on Tuesday were only playing near rocket launchers targeted by Israeli troops, and were not connected with the terrorists, an army probe determined Thursday.
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The Israel Defense Forces said the children were killed after an army ground unit fired on Qassam launchers in the area. The launchers, which were pointed at Israel, were deployed in fields just outside Beit Hanun, near the Ghazal family’s home. According to the IDF, troops detected “unidentified movement and opened fire.”
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But the probe, which was launched immediately after the incident, determined that the children were playing tag near the launchers, as revealed by army footage recording the incident. The video reportedly shows the children - who appear as figures whose age cannot be determined - approaching the launchers and then moving back, in a way that could be seen as suggesting that they were loading the launchers with rockets.
They were children who were playing and the way that they were playing they were touching the launchers and it was impossible to determine whether it was someone who was actually at the time attempting to use them or dismantle them. As it turns out it was kids who were playing with them.
The Ha’aretz story shows a picture of the grieving relatives, but I wished they’d stamped the word “GUILTY” over it. Who lets their children play with military equipment? Do they feed them lead paint and encourage them to swim after a big meal?
The Israelis should feel bad (and they do), but they did nothing wrong. Those children could have been terrorists (they usually are), and those launchers could have been aimed at Israeli schools (they usually are). Don’t want your kids to die? Don’t let them play around Qassam launchers—or, better yet, here’s an idea: get rid of the launchers and renounce indiscriminate slaughter as a foreign policy. Or maybe your kids lives aren’t worth the sacrifice.