Gaza's pain: 'We're bored of this life and want to die'

[Scurrilous]

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"HE WAS a small man in a small hospital ward about to hear words that no father ever should. Outside the window, a short drive away, Israeli battle tanks and snipers fought Palestinian gunmen in Beit Hanoun during the fiercest street fights in Gaza for months.

Muhammad Zakout’s 14- year-old son, Alaa, leaked blood on to a hospital pillow as his family gathered around the bed, incredulous that after repeated warnings to stay out of trouble he had been shot while throwing stones at Israeli tanks.

After muttered lies and evasions — to smirks from teenage accomplices — the truth was even more unwelcome.

“I’ll tell you why,” he finally mumbled. “We are just bored of this life and we want to die.”

Silence.

“He doesn’t listen to me,” lamented Mr Zakout, 44, a labourer from the Jabalya refugee camp who vainly hopes that his eldest son’s shoulder wound will jolt sense into him."

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