[B-Man]

I don't know how anyone can defend/support these people. This kind of action truly shocks the conscience. I'm sure Cyrus, Alger and Nicky will start mentioning assasinations and the like by Israel, but in no way is anything Israel has done comparable to the cold-blooded murders of children. Israel targets terrorists (and sometimes causes collateral damage), but would never intentionally, specifically murder babies like happened in this incident.

This is truly horrific.
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May 3, 2004 -- JERUSALEM - Palestinian fiends mercilessly gunned down a pregnant Jewish settler and her four terrified little girls in their station wagon yesterday as the family headed to protest Israel's planned Gaza Strip pullout.
After riddling the car with gunfire on a road leading to Israel, the two terrorists then ran up to the vehicle and coldbloodedly pumped bullets into each of their victims' heads to make sure they had finished the job, Israeli police said.

One of the gunmen also shot the swollen belly of the eight-months-pregnant mom at point-blank range.

"At first, we thought we could do something to save the mother, but it was too late," one distraught Israeli settler said.

"The children were already dead, with bullets in the head. Little children. I don't know, I really don't know," the man said.

Killed were Tali Hatuel, 34, and her four daughters: Meirav, 2, Roni, 7, Hadar, 9, and Hila, 11.

Rescuers found the dead baby still strapped in her car seat, just above a blood-soaked children's book that had fallen on the floor.



The brutal attack occurred at around 1 p.m., as Hatuel, a social worker who counseled the relatives of terror victims, was driving her daughters from their settlement of Gush Katif to hand out fliers at a nearby protest over the planned dismantlement of their settlement and about 20 others.

A bumper sticker on their car defiantly read, "From here, we will not move."

Hours later, Likud Party voters overwhelmingly rejected a nonbinding referendum on the plan, largely because of emotional backlash stemming from the five murders.

Israeli TV reported that a CNN crew traveling in a van on the same road as the woman and her daughters had spotted the ambush being set up moments earlier and tried to alert the family. But the mom didn't understand what the crew was trying to say before it was too late.

The two gunmen were shot dead by Israeli soldiers as they fled the scene.

Several Palestinian militant groups, including the Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility.

David Hatuel, a teacher, wept uncontrollably over the bodies of his wife and children at their funerals as he begged them to forgive him for spending so much time away from home to lobby against the pullout.

"On Friday, [the girls] drew me a picture and wrote, 'Daddy, we are proud of what you are doing for the home where we were born,' " he told the crowd of thousands of mourners.

"You were my flowers, and I will not forget you," he sobbed.

Several hours after the attack, Israel launched missiles at a Gaza City building that housed Palestinian-run radio stations and two main newspapers. At least two people were wounded. Israel also launched a missile strike on a car in Nablus, killing four militants.