On 30 September twelve-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah was cut down in a hail of bullets as he tried to shelter behind his father at a road junction in the Gaza strip. He has been with his father looking at a car they wished to buy. It was all captured live on TV; the haunting images are posted on many websites.
Israel eventually had to admit they did it and suffered a huge propaganda blow. But massaging the media is a war like anything else with many battles. Soon the Israelis spin doctors had story to retaliate with: the “mob lynching” on 12 October of two poor Israeli reservists who took a “wrong turn” in the Arab village of Ramallah after passing an Israeli military checkpoint.
Immediately the Zionist influenced media ran with the story. Senseless killings on all sides, trying to equate Mohammed’s murder with those of the soldiers. But what really happened in Ramallah?
In fact the two were members of a four strong death squad unit (known as the ‘musta’arabeen’) who are known to infiltrate demonstrations and funeral processions to arrest or execute participants.
Between 1987 and 1998 they are known to have killed 168 Arabs on the security services wanted list. The death squads wear traditional Arab clothes or civilian clothes and speak very fluent Arabic.
Two were in a Palestinian ambulance (that had been stolen last night during the clashes between settlers, soldiers and Palestinians) and two were in an ordinary car.
They entered Ramallah about the same time as the funeral of one of the youths murdered by the Israelis the day before. Evidently they planned to do something to coincide with the funeral procession, but what exactly is not clear. All 4 of the musta’arabeen were armed and there were explosives in the car and ambulance.
Two were spotted by a policeman who detained them and took them to the police station. The other two escaped. Later the mourners from the funeral were passing by the area and heard that armed Israelis, with a car full of explosives, had been discovered in the centre of town.
They stormed the station and the soldiers were killed. The men who killed the soldiers were close relatives of several who had been killed by Israel in the past two weeks.