Maimed 10-year-old angry at Israel over cluster bombs

HILTA: From his hospital room in the Marjayoun Public Hospital, 10-year-old Mohammad Jamal Abdel- Aal says he will not forgive nor forget Israel for ripping off his limbs. Abdel-Aal's left leg and right hand got amputated on Sunday after a cluster bomb, left over from the summer 2006 war with Israel, exploded while he was playing in one of the fields near his home in the southern town of Hilta.

"I am not able to play anymore," Abdel-Aal told The Daily Star on Sunday.

In the last 72 hours of the 34-day July-August war, Israel dropped around four million cluster bombs all across southern Lebanon. The main concentration of unexploded ordinance is found in villages and fields north of the Littani River.

Recalling the few minutes that preceded the explosion, Abdel-Aal said that he had gone out to a field near his house, "to take advantage of the spring time weather."

"I was walking between the yellow daisies when I heard and explosion and felt my body was being ripped apart," he said, adding that he started feeling pain in his leg and was bleeding everywhere. "Then everything turned black."

Sure he was walking between daisies. He was out looking for the bomblets. The arabs are always good at propoganda.

Director of the Marjayoun Hospital, physician Mouenes Kalakesh, explained that what preoccupied him the most in Abdel-Aal's case is that the wound was going to "affect his life forever."

"The psychological repercussions are not to be neglected," he added, "they are the most important."

In a room next to Abdel-Aaal's, 16-year-old Riad al-Ahmad is recovering from a landmine explosion that cost him a leg. Israel's 22-year occupation (1978-2000) of south Lebanon left the area infested with landmines. A landmine exploded while Ahmad was herding his sheep in one of the fields of the southern village of Wazanni.

"Israelis want to kill us so we don't confront them," Ahmad's mother said.

On Friday, United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams urged Israel to provide maps indicating the location of cluster bombs in south Lebanon to facilitate demining operations. He noted that Israel has ignored previous requests to hand over the maps.

Development and Liberation bloc MP Anwar al-Khalil said he hoped that the Cabinet would prioritize the issue of unexploded ordnance dropped by Israel. Talking during a political gathering in his hometown of Hasbaya, Khalil urged the Cabinet to commit to the clause on unexploded ordnance in the ministerial statement.

He also called on the government to launch a global political and media campaign, and organize an international conference to support demining efforts.

I do not feel sorry for any arab muslim that gets hurt or killed. You know that he is going to become a suicide bomber in a wheelchair or something like that.