No justice for slain Gaza toddler

Three years on from the killing of 2-year-old Fares Hamouda and his stepbrother Muhammad, Israel has yet to respond to a complaint over their deaths. On Jan. 11, 2009, Israeli tanks shelled the Hamouda family home in Gaza City. Fares died instantly and Muhammad bled to death waiting for an ambulance which was unable to reach him in the midst of Israel's three-week bombardment of Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. Fares' mother, Intissar, told the Palestinian Center for Human Rights that the brothers had shared a close relationship. Muhammed's mother had died when he was 10 months old. "Fares would refuse to go to sleep until Muhammed came home from school. On the day of the attack Fares was sick, but he refused to take medicine from me, he wanted it from Muhammed," she said. Intissar had tried for 21 years to conceive Fares, her only son, and says she no longer fears Israel's frequent attacks on Gaza City as she has "nothing else left to lose." Three years on, she says she cannot bear to pick up another child. "I feel that place belongs to Fares." Intissar, 41, sustained injuries to her legs and has had three operations to remove shrapnel from her abdomen. She still suffers chronic pain from nerve damage. PCHR submitted a criminal complaint to Israel on behalf of the Hamouda family in July 2009 but has yet to receive any response and Intissar is not optimistic. "The Israelis committed war crimes against us, they destroy the houses over the heads of civilians, I expect no justice from them," she says.