![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/IslamQuraiqe1.jpg\" "\\"Islam")
<\/a>He looks at the camera with bright eyes and the beginning of a smile, wearing a miniature dark blue zipper sweatshirt, the cuffs folded up a bit to make it fit.<\/span><\/p>\nI can imagine his mother dressing him that morning, making sure he would be warm enough. I wonder if she\u2019s the one who took the picture. Someone has written on the photo \u201ckisses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not <\/span>a formal picture<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>. He\u2019s outside on a sunny day. It looks like he was probably moving when the picture was snapped; his arms seem to be swinging a little. As with most almost two-year-olds, I suspect it was hard to get him to stay still long enough for a photo.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a happy picture<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, the kind that makes you smile; perhaps it reminds you of funny, energetic little children you know or remember.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Death from a drone strike is not pretty. The small body is charred, ripped apart; internal organs are <\/span><\/strong><\/span>pouring out<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n He had been riding with his father and uncle on a motorcycle in Gaza when <\/span>the missile hit them<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>. His 29-year-old father, a member of the Palestinian resistance, and 32-year-old uncle physician were also killed. Five bystanders, including a woman, were injured.<\/span><\/p>\n The missile was fired remotely by an Israeli sitting in front of a video screen and operating one of the many drones that periodically fly over Gaza and shoot Palestinians like fish in a fishbowl. The operators are <\/span>usually female<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the preferred group for this kind of desk job.<\/span><\/p>\n The drones, which look like small, pilotless jets, are equipped with <\/span>precision-guided missiles<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Those operating them receive real-time video feeds from sensors located on the drone: a color nose camera, a TV lens, an infrared camera for low light and night, and a synthetic radar for looking through smoke, clouds or haze. The cameras produce <\/span>full motion video<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>as well as still frame radar images.<\/span><\/p>\n Numerous articles extol the virtues of Israeli drones. An <\/span><\/strong><\/span>August 17th article<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>by David Rodman reports: \u201cThe Israel Air Force (IAF) has a rich history of employing unmanned aerial vehicles in battle with excellent results.\u201d Rodman crows that with the possible exception of the United States, \u201cIsrael is the country most closely identified with [drone] operations in the post-World War II period.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Islam was the second two-year-old to be killed by Israeli forces in two days.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span><\/strong><\/span>first<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/strong>was killed by an Israeli \u201cprecision\u201d rocket the day before. The boy\u2019s name was Malek Sha\u2019at. His father was also killed. The only picture available online is of <\/span><\/strong><\/span>a small shrouded body<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n An <\/span>article<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/strong>by reporter Aaron Klein proclaims that Israeli weapons are \u201ccapable of taking out stationary and moving targets with minimal collateral damage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps Klein is right. Two years of life is decidedly minimal. Intolerably so.<\/span><\/p>\n There is no evidence connecting Gazan resistance groups to the attack, and they have<\/span> denied responsibility for it<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Hamas itself had maintained a unilateral de facto ceasefire <\/span><\/strong><\/span>since 2009<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>(some independent resistance groups, however, refused to take part in this truce and continued to launch rockets in response to Israeli actions). Groups in Egypt have periodically <\/span>taken actions<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>opposing Israel. Egyptian authorities say they have identified <\/span>three of the attackers<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>, who appear to have been based in the Sinai, there are <\/span><\/strong><\/span>reports<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>that Israeli intelligence warned of the attack ahead of time, and there is mounting information suggesting that the attackers may have been <\/span>Egyptian, not Gazan<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n While many reports describe the Israeli actions as retaliatory, Israeli attacks on Gaza occur regularly and were already <\/span>ongoing before the Eilat attack<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Two days earlier, on Tuesday, an <\/span>Israeli air strike<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>killed a 29-year-old Palestinian man in the morning, and Israeli ground soldiers <\/span>killed a disabled<\/strong> teenager <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>later in the day. The youth was shot more than 10 times, mostly in the head. On Wednesday night there were more Israeli air attacks throughout Gaza. (The LA Times<\/em> called this a period of \u201crelative calm.\u201d) Some<\/span> analysts<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> suggest that the recent Israeli escalation against Gaza may have been prompted, at least in part, by a Netanyahu desire to deflect energy from the massive social protests that have been enveloping Israel recently.<\/span><\/p>\n The death toll among Gazans and Israelis has been notably disproportionate. In Israel\u2019s Dec-Jan 2008-09 \u201cCast Lead\u201d assault, Israeli forces killed approximately <\/span><\/strong><\/span>1,387 Gazans <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>, while resistance forces <\/span>killed nine Israelis<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>. In the preceding year Israeli forces killed 713 Gazans; Gazan resistance fighters <\/span>killed eight Israelis<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Since \u201cCast Lead\u201d through the end of July of this year, Israeli forces killed approximately 200 Gazans; Palestinian resistance groups killed approximately <\/span>five Israelis<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Most of Gaza\u2019s residents are refugee families who were forcibly pushed out by Israel in its 1947-49 founding war, in which non-Jews, who originally made up over 70 percent of the inhabitants, were <\/span><\/strong><\/span>expelled<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n In violation of international law, they have been prohibited from returning to their homes and have lived under crippling Israeli occupation for decades. Palestinian land is continually confiscated by Israel for Jewish-only use. A popular uprising against Israeli occupation began in the fall of 2000.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span>yesterday<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>: \u201cThose who operate against us will be decapitated.\u201d That night at least 100 Israeli military vehicles stormed into the West Bank city of Hebron, closing the city off for hours and rounding up more than 50 Palestinians, including several academics and members of charitable associations.<\/span><\/p>\n On Saturday, August 20th, Israeli Aerospace Industries proudly unveiled its latest drone, known as the \u201c<\/span>GHOST<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u201d which the company announced, \u201cis at the forefront of technology thanks to years of experience and knowledge acquired in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Israel partisan and author <\/span>David Rodman<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/a>Until you see the next picture<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. It was taken on his second birthday. His name was Islam Quraiqe\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\nContext<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>During this period (August 18-20, 2011) Israeli forces <\/span>killed 14 Palestinians<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>including at least one other child, a 13-year-old, and injured at least 50, nine of them children. Gazan resistance forces <\/span>killed one Israeli and injured about 20<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/a>. Gazan hospitals, hard hit by the years-long Israeli siege, report that they have run out of 150 medicines and 160 types of medical equipment <\/a><\/strong><\/span>triggered by attack<\/strong>s<\/a> on Thursday, August 18th, by unknown gunmen on the Egyptian border with Israel that killed <\/span>eight Israelis<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Israeli forces killed the attackers in Eilat, also shooting dead, according to the BBC, five Egyptian policemen. The Israeli Defense Minister told Egypt afterwards that \u201c<\/span>Israel regrets the deaths<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n