The Child Who Was Murdered Before Arriving At School

The Child Who Was Murdered Before Arriving At School

Kawther Salam

Ayyoubs mother shows his school bag. Pic. Credit: Palestinian Newspaper March 15, 2012 With deep pain and bitterness she asked, while her tears were falling on her cheeks like rain. She was carrying the remains of a school bag and some books in her hands. She asked: "Will the israeli killers of my little child, a piece from my heart and my liver find their way to justice, or they will survive their crime unpunished, as usual? I hope that they will be tried, or does the justice, which the international community is talking about so effusively, ONLY apply in Libya and Sudan but when the Israeli occupation murders, it is outside of the reach of their justice? Collecting the body pieces of the murdered child. Pic. Credit Maan News These are the very simple and clear words of the mother of Ayyoub Useila, 12, who was murdered in Gaza by an Israeli-American missile on last Sunday 11 March 2012. His body was torn to small pieces that were difficult to collect because the explosion caused the pieces of his body to fly even over the trees. His cousin (another child) was injured seriously in the same criminal israeli attack. The bloodthirsty Israeli criminals were not able to differentiate between a "resistance member carrying a rocket" and a little boy carrying a school bag on his way to school. Simply said, Israel is pursuing a policy of premeditated murder and assassination against Palestinians. All the Palestinians children, women, elderly, and also the resistance, are targets of Israel. During the past years the mother of little Ayyoub had already lost two of her children during different criminal israeli air-strikes. Each year she lost a child. This is a disaster, a catastrophe, why they are targeting me? What I did to them? said Ayyoub’s the mother. "That morning, as usual, Ayyoub packed his bag and went to school carrying a piece of bread filled with potato in his hand. A few minutes after he went. I heard the "Zannaneh", an Israeli Apache, firing a missile on the road which the students use when going to school. I ran to the street in search of my little son who just went out. He had been killed; he was the target of the Israeli missile. His bag flew dozens of meters and small pieces of his body were spread all around the place. The rests of his body were stuck in small pieces on the branches of trees and a piece of bread and the potato were scattered on the ground. He was murdered before he could eat his breakfast". Ayyoub and his mother with the bike he received some days before being murdered. Pic. Credit: Palestinian Newspaper The story of the mother of little Ayyoub in the Gaza Strip is the story of all mothers in Gaza, of all mothers whose children go to school in the morning but who have no guarantee that their children will return home in safety, walking on their own legs and in one piece. Some children in Gaza get murdered by missiles and others are injured with shrapnel and return to hospitals instead of home or going to school. Many others suffer pain, trauma and fears which last a life. The mother of little Ayyoub received the body of her child in small pieces which were collected in a plastic bag. This was the third time that Ayyoub’s mother received the bodies of her children in pieces. During the funeral of her child, she insisted in putting to rest with him the piece of bread with potato and his books. While israel continues its criminal career unhindered, many other mothers must fear that their children will not return home safe. And israel’s criminal career will continue until that time when it is given a sobering beat-down when it picks the wrong fight. That is the global experience with bullies, from schoolyards to neighborhoods to the middle east with israel: appeasement only encourages bullies, who are seldom smart enough to understand when they are spoken to in polite words. They only stop their antisocial and criminal behavior when they are given a memorable smack-down.