New revelations were reported today in the LA Times including charges by the family, Abbas, and other authorities that the children were intentionally targeted and killed.
The basis of this damning charge of terrorism is reported in the LA Times as
Police investigators said it was possible that the gunmen meant to kill the children's father, thinking he was inside the white sedan with tinted windows. Balousheh, an officer in the Fatah-led Palestinian general intelligence service, became notorious a decade ago as an interrogator in a clampdown on Hamas by a previous Fatah government.
But the family said it was convinced that Osama, 9, Ahmed, 7, and Islam, 6 — Balousheh's only children — were the targets.
Abbas and other authorities agreed.
"Whoever did this knew how to get to him," Balousheh's wife, Linda, told mourners outside the family's apartment building. "He adored his sons."
Members of Balousheh's security detail said their boss routinely sent his children to school at least 20 minutes before he left for work.
"They obviously had the building under surveillance, so they must have known he wasn't in the car," said Maher Ghosein, one of Balousheh's bodyguards.
Further details of the attack were also reported
Doctors said one of the boys was shot 10 times in the head. A bodyguard in the car and at least four bystanders were wounded in the 7:10 a.m. shooting. Children walking to school dove to the pavement or fled screaming.
Watching from the 13th floor, Ghosein, the bodyguard, said he saw gunmen firing from one vehicle behind the boys' car and from two vehicles in front of it on opposite corners of Wahda Street. He also saw five gunmen get out of other cars and open fire. At least 15 men took part in the attack, he said.
Abed Shaquoura, 12, was walking past the intersection on his way to school when the shooting broke out. He ducked for cover in a doorway. After the gunmen raced off, he was the first person to approach the bullet-riddled car.
"I opened a car door and a dead child fell out," he told Palestine Television.
Whom among us can read these descriptions and not feel completely revulsed by the monsters that could perform such atrocities? Some whom support Hamas will challenge their involvement in this crime. No one knows for certain if it was an authorized attack but it is hard to believe Hamas does not or can not determine whom was involved.
And if the monsters are not brought to justice?
Some Fatah officials were more explicit. Mohammed Dahlan, a member of parliament, said, "If the criminals are not brought to justice, then Fatah will deal with the situation."
And the cycle of violence, death and chaos will continue.
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