Shortly before midnighton July 22nd, 2002 I heard an unusually loud roar from an aircraftflying low above the skies of Gaza City. Because the sound of Israeliwarplanes is commonplace in the area, I didn`t feel particularlyalarmed and went to sleep as usual. I was awakened less than a halfhour later by a call on my cell phone: An F-16 fighter jet had justdropped a one-ton bomb on an apartment building in one of Gaza City`spoorest and most crowded neighborhoods, about 15 minutes from where Ilived.
Ambulances, fire fighters and the press were already on the scene.Salah Shehadeh, leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, themilitary wing of Hamas, was dead. So were 14 others, we learned lateron, most of them women and children. Later that morning, Israeli PrimeMinister Ariel Sharon would proclaim this event