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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Palestinians meet death in bid for better life



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13-12-02, 17:22
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Poverty and
despair drove Ahmed al-Astal to try to sneak across a frontier
where an infiltrator's life can end in the flash of a tank
shell.
Astal was one of five unarmed Palestinians, all members of
an extended family in the Gaza Strip, killed by an Israeli tank
on Thursday as they tried to cross a border fence and find work
in Israel.
"He told me he was going to earn a good living for our
children," Astal's wife, Wafa, told Reuters on Friday.
"He promised us a better life and he lost his own," she
said, cradling a three-year-old in her arms. The couple have
three other children, aged between seven and 10.
Unemployment in the Gaza Strip and West Bank has rocketed to
65 percent since the start more than two years ago of a
Palestinian uprising for statehood that led Israel to largely
stem the flow of Palestinian labourers into the Jewish state.
Israel cites security considerations for sealing off
Palestinian-controlled territory. Palestinians call it
collective punishment that has crippled their economy.
Israeli authorities recently allowed several thousand
Palestinians to return to jobs inside Israel, but Palestinians
said the move did little to alleviate the unemployment problem.
At least 10,000 people marched in a funeral procession for
the five men killed at the border fence. Israeli soldiers found
ladders at the scene but no guns.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan
Peled called the killings a "tragic event" but added: "They were
five suspicious persons in a prohibited area."
Inside the Astral family home -- which lacks electricity and
where mattresses strewn on a cement floor serve as beds -- a
widow contemplated a bleak future.
"Is this a life? It is no life," she said. "He was the sole
supporter of the family. Who is going to take care of us now?"

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