Soldier's death forges a strange bond

[Violet_Crumble]

Umm Hisham Qishta stood at the spot where she cradled a dying Israeli soldier a few days ago. She said she was going nowhere.

But just in case the armoured bulldozers came too close, she bundled the contents of her flat into plastic sacks yesterday and sent the furniture off on the back of a donkey cart.

<snip>

The blast, made worse by explosives in the Israeli vehicle, threw body parts hundreds of metres. Palestinians paraded the dismembered fingers, hands and limbs in a macabre celebration of inflicting a blow on the occupation forces.

Israelis were outraged at the abuse, but Umm Hisham Qishta said three soldiers who set up a snipers' post in her flat showed no hostility. "The soldiers were polite. One of them asked for permission to smoke," she said.

"They put me and my daughters into one room. After a while I asked to prepare food for the children. One of the soldiers was standing in the kitchen door when I heard him scream. I never even heard the shot. I rushed to hold him. I was holding his head and rubbing his arms but he was dying.

"It was like my son was dying in front of me. His friends were very scared. They brought a stretcher and I helped carry it down the stairs. At the bottom there was another shot and one of the soldiers carrying the stretcher was shot in the head. He was a very young guy. Only about 20. After that came hell."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/18/1084783511890.html

[German-Lefty]

1. Cool - the human side of things