The following was an AP story. This Israeli terrorism was also reported in HaÕaretz. I did not see coverage of this in my local newpaper or in any other American mainstream media. That is a sad commentory on unbiased news reporting in America.

Yesterday Israeli terrorism near Jenin killed a 30-year old mother and her two children, ages four and six. Elsewhere in Tulkanen, Israeli terrorism killed a nine year old boy. It is unthinkable to me that any similar killing of innocent Israelis children would not have been reported (with pictures).

What explanation is there for this kind of racist news reporting?

by AP ¥ Monday May 06, 2002 at 06:44 PM
Israel: Soldiers killed mother and children after being spooked by snapping of tank tread.

JENIN (AP) Ñ The snapping of a tank tread, rather than an explosion, produced the loud noise that spooked Israeli soldiers who then opened fire on nearby Palestinians, killing a mother and her two preschool children, the Israeli occupation army said Monday.

The military initially said a mine went off near the tank on Sunday. Searching for Palestinians they believed might have placed the explosives, members of the tank crew opened fire on nearby Palestinians.

The tank fire killed a 30-year-old Palestinian woman farmer and her children, ages four and six, who were picking grape leaves in the area, southwest of the Palestinian city of Jenin, Palestinian witnesses said.

The army Òexpressed regretÓ for the killings and said it would ÒinvestigateÓ the shooting. Military investigators found no traces of a bomb in the area, and an inspection of the tank found that its tread had come loose, causing the sound of an explosion that misled the crew, an army spokesman said Monday.

Near Jenin, Mohammed Zakarneh, the 30-year-old Palestinian farmer, and his wife Fatma and two of their children, four-year-old Abir and six-year-old Bassel, set out at dawn Sunday for the vineyard. The family made the trip daily from their town of Qabatiya, just a short ride away.

On a nearby road, the tread snapped off the Israeli tank.

Searching for those who might have placed a bomb for them to drive over, soldiers came upon Zakarneh and his family, who were picking grape leaves in the first row of the vineyard.

Zakarneh said he saw the tank's machinegun swivel towards them and fire. In a moment of horror, he looked at his little girl, Abir Ñ bullets had pulverised her small face.

His wife lay bleeding from her head and neck. Bassel, was barely breathing; he later died, Zakarneh said.

In his grief and confusion, Zakarneh said he wept and tore at the earth, throwing soil into his face.

One of the soldiers who came to him fainted at the sight of Zakarneh's dead little girl.

Other soldiers combing through the fields came closer.

They cuffed Zakarneh's hands and questioned him with seven others they rounded up. Apparently searching for weapons, the soldiers made the group, women among them, strip to their underwear, Zakarneh said.

Some three hours later, Zakarneh was allowed to go. An Israeli officer apologised to him in Arabic, saying the soldiers had killed his family Òby accidentÓ. The officer got back into his jeep and drove away.

The Israeli human rights group B'tselem criticised the army for firing on the family without first clearly identifying them.

Field workers from the group interviewed a witnesses who said she saw the tank fire in all directions after its tread fell off.

Besides the death of the farmer's family on Sunday, a nine-year-old Palestinian boy was also shot and killed on the edge of the Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern West Bank. The boy, Tamer Abu Sarrieh, had gone to the entrance of the camp to watch Israeli tanks rumble around. The fourth-grader, who had little else to do in the cramped refugee camp, liked to watch the tanks churn up dust and swivel their weapons, said his father, Khaled Abu Sarrieh, a 40-year-old pipe layer.

A military spokesman said he didn't know what happened to the boy but claimed Palestinians in an area nearby had fired on armoured vehicles and soldiers returned fire, shooting light arms into the air.

Abu Sarrieh was inconsolable. ÒIt's my boy. I raised him day by day and lost him suddenly without any reason,Ó he said.
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Note by karen. Stop funding Sharon military terrorism with American taxes.