"I don't see why the Palestinians keep firing at us since we left Gaza," said a bewildered Israeli president Shimon Perez, hours after a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza fell on an Israeli military base injuring 69 soldiers in the early hours of Tuesday. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was quick to blame Hamas, although Islamic Jihad's armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades had jointly claimed responsibility with the Popular Resistance Committee. Israel, she said, would respond with "non military" means. As she was speaking the Israeli army had already responded by injuring four civilians -- a father and three children -- in north Gaza. The rocket was, said the Al-Quds Brigades' statement, fired "in response to Zionist threats [and the] targeting of [Palestinian] children in both Gaza and the West Bank." So Perez has his answer. On 6 September Israeli soldiers opened fire on a group of Palestinian children who were throwing stones at them in the West Bank town of Jenin. Fourteen-year-old Rabie' Samar was shot and died on Monday. Three other children were injured. On 27 June, nine-year-old Safieddin Jundiyah of Al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, was killed by Israeli army shelling from a tank while sitting in front of his home. On 14 June, five Palestinian children aged between 11 and 15 were killed by unexploded Israeli army ordinance in Rafah. On 8 June, Hijazi Rzaiqat, 17, of Taffouh, near Hebron, was killed when Israeli forces shot him in the chest, abdomen, left shoulder and right thigh while he was out hunting birds. On May 20 Israeli forces shelled the home of Hamza Al-Masri, 17, of Beit Lahya, Gaza. He died of chest and abdominal wounds on 1 June. On 1 June Zaher A-Majdalawi, 14, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, was killed by Israeli gunfire while flying a kite with his friends near the beach in Beit Lahya. On the same beach Ahmed Abu Zbaida, 14, also of Jabalya refugee camp, was killed. He too was shot by the Israelis while flying a kite with friends. And still Perez does not know why the Palestinian resistance is making and firing rockets? Equally disturbing is that visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the groups behind the rocket attack "do not want any dialogue" and were seeking to "undermine the process of negotiations between Israel and Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas]." The groups Kouchner referred to agreed to a historic ceasefire in Cairo two years ago on condition Israel halt attacks against the Palestinians. Israel failed to stick to its part of the deal. When Hamas was democratically elected in January 2006 it refrained from carrying out any operations against Israel. It continues to maintain that policy. But this is not enough for Tel Aviv. Israel refuses to tolerate a Palestinian government that is unwilling to compromise the rights of the Palestinian people. But we have left Gaza, says Perez. The argument is at best disingenuous. Since Israel's pullout from Gaza in 2005 it has systematically tightened the noose around the neck of the Gazans whom it now hopes to starve into submission. As long as there is no fair and just peace, bitterness must prosper and hope will be killed.
