The Gaza Drive By

Hamas and Fatah are still unable to agree on a unity government that would be able to convince the US, EU, and Israelis that they are indeed recognizing Israel's right to exist all while carrying on their war against Israel's very existence.

Fatah isn't willing to give up its cozy position - appearing to be the sanest of the bunch of genocidal terror groups and Hamas isn't willing to back down since they got the most votes in the last election.

So what are a bunch of terrorists to do when the "political" process breaks down? They resort to the tried-and-true method of intimidating the other side into compliance. And by intimidation, I mean assassinating rivals and killing family members to get their way:

Palestinian gunmen killed three young sons of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer Monday, pumping dozens of bullets into their car as it passed through a street crowded with schoolchildren in an apparent botched assassination attempt that could ignite widespread factional fighting.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drive-by attack, which left the schoolbags and a small plastic bag with a sandwich covered in blood.

"I have no words. Words stop at the extent of this crime," the boys' father, Baha Balousheh, told The Associated Press. "I am a father who has lost his children."

Senior officials in the intelligence service, which is loyal to the Fatah Party of President Mahmoud Abbas, blamed the Islamic militant group Hamas for the shooting. Balousheh, a Fatah member, was a lead interrogator in a crackdown on Hamas a decade ago.

Hamas denied involvement and denounced the bloodshed.

While dozens have been killed in Gaza's escalating lawlessness since Hamas defeated Fatah in January parliamentary elections, the death of the children was especially shocking and was likely to trigger widespread confrontations at a time Hamas and Fatah were at loggerheads over the creation of a national unity government.

Isn't it funny (in a real sick twisted way) how the murder of Palestinian kids by other Palestinian thugs is a cause for Palestinians to show horror and shock, while Islamic terror attacks against Israelis that kill and maim children are applauded by those same Palestinians as the highest possible achievement.

Other reports indicated that this was an unprecedented attack. That descriptor, "unprecedented," couldn't be further from the truth. The Palestinians have long targeted children in their terror attacks - aiming at Israeli schools for example, going all the way back to the Ma'alot massacre where 21 children (26 Israelis overall, with 60 wounded) were murdered by DFLP terrorists.

The Palestinians regularly engage in tit-for-tat reprisals against rival groups and Hamas and Fatah have exchanged fire repeatedly over the past several months with both sides taking casualties. Neither side is willing to back down, so the violence is likely to escalate.

UPDATE:
There are some puzzling statements that ought to be addressed by the media reporting on this story as well. One such report claims that one of the children was hit by 10 bullets in the head.

The three dead boys, still wearing their school uniforms, were carried by family members at a mosque. One boy had 10 bullet holes in his head, according to an AP reporter who saw the body.

Really? What's the name of the AP reporter? Why is he or she unnamed? Anyone know what one bullet to the head would look like? Ever seen the Zapruder film? How about 10? Let's set aside that issue that needs to be fact-checked by the good folks who are reporting this stuff and repeating it without regard to common sense.

More disturbing is the fact that this story gets above the fold coverage at the Times, when Palestinian terror attacks and rocket attacks on Israel will not get similar treatment.

How come these reports provide so much detail about the lives of these three Palestinian children, when the wire services go out of their way to dehumanize the Israeli victims of Palestinian terror attacks - reporting the incidents dispassionately, in the passive voice and often without basic information like the names or ages of the victims or what they were doing at the time they were killed. As Meryl Yourish regularly points out, this is yet another example of Israeli double standard time.

Meanwhile, Iran pledges hundreds of millions of dollars to aid Hamas, and nary a yawn from the media.