This story has already appeared
in various blogs. Al Jazeera's reporting of it is interesting:
The Israeli army was forced to cancel a planned air strike on the home of a Palestinian fighter in Gaza after hundreds of Palestinians formed a human shield around the building, an Israeli spokesman and witness said.
They weren't "forced" to call off the air strike. They chose to call it off motivated by humanitarian concerns.
Hundreds of people surrounded the home of Weil Baroud, a commander of the Popular Resistance Committees in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, after he was told by the Israeli army late on Saturday that the building was going to be bombed. He was given 30 minutes to leave.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that the raid had been called off because of the protest.
"The attack plan was cancelled because of the people there. We differentiate between innocent people and terrorists," he said.
Palestinian sources called the protest the first of its kind to have in effect prevented an air strike by the Israeli army.
Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent, reported that it was the first time such an act has been seen in the Gaza Strip by residents.
Baroud is charged with firing homemade rockets at Israel. Crowds of people stood on the rooftop and in the yard of the home.
The Israeli spokesman vowed that his country would continue its strikes against fighters, and accused gunmen of using the civilians in the camp as human shields.
Does anyone disagree about that? Should the writer review his opening paragraph?
Nizar Rayan, a local Hamas leader who joined the protest, said: "We came here to protect this fighter, to protect his house and to prove that we are capable of defeating this Zionist policy."
The crowd chanted anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, and people said they were prepared to give their lives to protect the home.
"Yes to martyrdom. No to surrender," the crowd chanted.
Israel routinely orders residents out of their homes ahead of air strikes on suspected weapons-storage facilities, saying it wants to avoid casualties.
Odeh said: "This is a usual type of tactic from Israel in the Gaza Strip. They have been using it for months now. This is a type of psychological warfare.
We can't have that, can we? Perhaps Israel should stop issuing warnings and simply attack targets.
"Weil Baroud is a member of a political faction that although not represented in parliament, does have a lot of support on the streets, especially in Gaza."
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