W. Bank Bewails Death of Boys in Targeted Attack

Burhan Himouni, just three months shy of his third birthday, was a chubby and precocious boy who loved to prattle on the phone and play with his siblings and aunts. He tagged along with his father on errands or visits whenever he could.

Burhan was buried Tuesday, the day after an Israeli missile strike destroyed the car that the Palestinian toddler was riding in. He was sitting in his father’s lap, and a favorite first cousin, Mohammed Sidr, was driving.

With boys from a local youth group serving as honor guard, several thousand Palestinians attended the funeral for Burhan and 13-year-old Shadi Arafi, killed in the same botched assassination attempt. Shadi was in a taxi behind Burhan’s car when Israeli Apache helicopters hovered overhead, then unleashed two missiles into the crowded roadway.

Israeli officials said Sidr was the target and identified him as an Islamic Jihad militant responsible for terrorist bombings and planning more. Sidr suffered burns and shrapnel injuries to his face and eyes.

In the controversial policy of hunting suspected militants, Israeli forces have killed a number of women and children during the escalating violence of the last 14 months. The deaths have always been described as accidental collateral damage. But the Hebron attack was different: This time, Israeli forces succeeded in hitting their intended target, Sidr’s car, while a child was inside.

An Israeli security official said that had the pilots known a child was in the car, they would not have fired. The matter was still under investigation Tuesday, but the fact that Israeli officers could be confident Sidr was present but not realize a child was also present appeared to represent a serious failure of electronic and human intelligence, the official said.

Burhan’s mother was not interested in intelligence failures. Despondent at her home on a road off Peace Street on Tuesday, she wept as she remembered “such a smart boy.”

“He would have grown up to be the best person,” said Zuhour Himouni. “His father always told him, ‘When I die, you will take care of the family, because you are the smartest.’ ”

On Monday afternoon, Zuhour’s nephew, Mohammed Sidr, had arrived in his blue car for a family visit, as he often did. Sidr took Mohammed Himouni, 61, and his youngest child, Burhan, on an errand to buy the sweetened stuffed pancakes that are a typical part of the evening meal that breaks the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Minutes after they left, Zuhour heard an explosion. As news spread that a blue car belonging to the Sidr family had been hit, she sensed that her baby was dead.

“I rushed down the street to see what was going on,” she said. “I tried to see him, but they wouldn’t let me.”

The first missile slammed into the road next to the median, about 10 yards from Sidr’s car but alongside a taxi where Shadi, the 13-year-old, was riding with his father. Shadi was killed, his father injured. By at least one witness’ account, Sidr, stopped at the traffic light, fled his car after the first explosion. The second rocket demolished the vehicle.

Burhan’s body was destroyed, half of his head blown away. His father was seriously wounded, with shrapnel in his chest and one leg so mangled it had to be amputated. About a dozen people were injured.

Sidr’s wounds were not life-threatening, according to doctors at private Al Mezan Hospital, where he was treated. Security guards from the ruling Palestinian Authority arrived late Monday and took Sidr--his eyes bandaged--to an undisclosed location.

Targeted killings by Israeli forces have led to retaliation. After Israel last summer assassinated the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestinian faction, the group responded with the first-ever slaying by a Palestinian of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

“If I could shoot them all, I would,” Burhan’s mother said Tuesday, referring to the Israelis she holds responsible for her son’s death. Around her, female relatives echoed agreement.

“There can never be peace with them,” said one woman.

“We should kill them all,” said another.

A poll published last week by Israel’s largest newspaper showed overwhelming support among Israelis for the internationally condemned policy of targeted killings. At the same time, nearly half the respondents recognized that the policy leads to more violence.

Israel has tracked down and killed about 50 militants--and about a dozen passersby have also been slain--since the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian fighting erupted. The country defends the policy as one of intervention and prevention.

“Every effort is made to make sure that there is no one else in the car except the target that is targeted,” said Israeli army Capt. Jacob Dallal. “We have an excellent track record, given how difficult this is.”

But Palestinians, and some international observers, accuse the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of using assassinations to stir up Palestinian anger and provoke an escalation--especially as U.S. special envoy Anthony C. Zinni contemplates extending, or ending, his mission to forge a cease-fire.

“We are not angry that they kill us--it’s the way they kill us,” said Dr. Ghandi Tamimi, director of Al Mezan Hospital. “Why do they need an Apache helicopter to kill an individual?”