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Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, at Tel Ha-Shomer Hospital on Saturday.
Last update - 20:46 17/01/2009
Israeli-trained Gaza doctor loses three daughters and niece to IDF tank shell
By The Associated Press
Tags: IDF, Israel, Israel News 

Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, a Palestinian doctor who trained in Israel, has been a regular fixture on Israeli television during the 21-day-old war against Hamas militants, bringing witness accounts of the medical crisis facing Gazans to Israeli living rooms.

His report Friday was drenched in grief as he sobbed through a cell phone that three of his daughters and a niece were killed by an Israel Defense Forces shell.


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Abu al-Aish said he hoped his three daughters would be the last victims of the fighting in Gaza, and that their deaths would help bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

"I want to know why my daughters were harmed. This should haunt (Israeli Ehud Prime Minister) Olmert his entire life," Abu al-Aish said on Israel's Channel 10, speaking through a cell phone in Hebrew as he has throughout the war.

He added that his daughters were "armed only with love."

Gazan officials identified Al-Aish's deceased daughters as 22-year-old Bisan, 15-year-old Mayer and 14-year old Aya. His niece was identified as 14-year-old Nour Abu al-Aish.

At least two other daughters were injured, and are currently being treated at Tel Ha-Shomer Hospital in Tel Aviv.

The press conference at Tel Ha-Shomer became tense at one moment when an Israeli woman and mother of three IDF paratroopers began yelling at Abu al-Aish, demanding that he explain why there was weaponry in the house.

Throughout the war, Abu al-Aish had put a face on the Palestinian suffering, making regular reports by cell phone to Israel's Channel 10. He is a rarity among Palestinians, a Hebrew-speaker who trained in two Israeli hospitals - the Soroka hospital in Beersheba just 18 miles from Gaza, and Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer hospital.

His tragedy prompted numerous calls of concern to the station, many from
people who know him.

"We all know and love him well at Soroka, and we really hope the situation gets better," Dr. Shaul Sofer, head of the ER at Soroka who taught Abu al-Aish.

Abu al-Aish, a 55-year-old gynecologist, also is a known peace activist who was involved in promoting joint Israeli-Palestinian projects, and an academic who studied the affects of war on Gazan and Israeli children. He works at Gaza's main Shifa Hospital.

During the call-ins, Abu al-Aish often spoke of his fears for his eight children as Israeli shells punished not only the Hamas militants they were targeting but civilians who live in the crowded enclave, unable to leave. His wife reportedly died recently of cancer.

When Channel 10 called him on Friday, he answered the phone crying that his house in the northern Gaza strip town of Jebalia had been hit by Israeli shells and his daughters killed. Eighteen members of his extended family were in the house at the time.

Israeli TV said initial reports indicated that a sniper had fired from either the family's building - which friends quoted by TV said they doubted - or nearby, and the Israeli infantry responded with a tank shell.

Abu al-Aish was able to arrange the transfer of two injured daughters to Israeli hospitals - something that has been extremely rare during this conflict. The Israeli army also for the first time allowed a Palestinian ambulance to go straight to the Erez border crossing, where the injured were transferred to Israeli ambulances.

From there, they were taken by helicopter to Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv.

"Everyone knew we were home. Suddenly we were bombed. How can we talk to Olmert and (Foreign Minister) Tzipi Livni after this?" Abu al-Aish told television reporters at the border crossing.

"Suddenly, today when there was hope for a cease-fire, on the last day...I was speaking with my children, suddenly they bombed us. The doctor who treats Israeli patients."

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      1.   horrible 18:10  |  luba 17/01/09
      2.   our thoughts are with you 18:15  |  rg 17/01/09
      3.   Why so many Civilians 18:34  |  David Cohen 17/01/09
      4.   No words 19:04  |  Doreen 17/01/09
      5.   A tragedy 19:06  |  Alex 17/01/09
      6.   Insane 19:06  |  Finn 17/01/09
      7.   bombing 19:10  |  John 17/01/09
      8.   Peace with the jews 19:14  |  Mina Abou Seif 17/01/09
      9.   Heart Wrenching 19:22  |  Noach 17/01/09
      10.   Gazans were warned to get the hell out 19:27  |  Stacy 17/01/09
      11.   A child is a child is a child 19:30  |  Bruno 17/01/09
      12.   #3 Why so many civilians 19:34  |  Noach 17/01/09
      13.   Hamas provokes civilian deads 19:42  |  Charles 17/01/09
      14.   A war is a war is a war! Stop the rockets, the war will stop! 19:43  |  Father Emanuel 17/01/09
      15.   Advice for Stacy 19:53  |  Isaiah 17/01/09
      16.   question for Alex 21:58  |  Richie 17/01/09
      17.   #10 Stacy Has a Point 22:13  |  Baruch Gold 17/01/09
      18.   Terrorists fired from his house 22:15  |  Maria 17/01/09
      19.   Isaiah...what`s wrong with Stacy`s statement 22:17  |  Maria 17/01/09
      20.   The picture of that doctor will break your heart. 22:21  |  Maria 17/01/09
      21.   Snipers in his house 22:53  |  Joe 17/01/09
      22.   How will we ever recover? 02:35  |  Ryan Benisri 18/01/09
      23.   Stacy ha-metumtemet 00:51  |  RK 18/01/09
      24.   To # 3- David 00:53  |  Romy 18/01/09
      25.   to # 22 00:56  |  Jim 18/01/09
      26.   unbelieveable 01:01  |  roi 18/01/09
      27.   A parents tears 01:58  |  Joel 18/01/09
      28.   vergonha 02:29  |  ricardo cunha 18/01/09
      29.   G-D bless his children but hamas is to be blamed 02:42  |  reuven 18/01/09
      30.   If reading about it isn`t bad enough 03:16  |  Aphemia 18/01/09
      31.   # 29 no reuven; the idf is to blame 04:43  |  eric 18/01/09
      32.   Cull the herd, regret nothing 05:18  |  Ravi Singh 18/01/09
      33.   To #10 & 17 07:55  |  American 18/01/09
      34.   So Sad 23:26  |  Humanist 20/01/09
      35.   Ravi Singh, "cull the herd" 01:06  |  ishmael daro 02/02/09
      36.   a human light among all the shadows... 05:47  |  Demetri Babalis 14/04/09
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