Relatives Recall Deadly Attack on Gaza
It was after 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Sharif al-Hajeen recalled today, when Israeli tank shells crashed with deadly accuracy into the plot of fig trees and grapevines in the dunes south of Gaza City where his family works days and sleeps nights during the summer picking season.

Some of Mr. al-Hajeen's brothers and cousins had been sitting on the sand, he said, others were stretched out in the warm summer night, when two Israeli tanks protecting the adjacent settlement of Netzarim crested a rise no more than 100 yards away. The men ducked under a fig tree, and the shells landed among them, followed by machine-gun fire, Mr. al-Hajeen said. Two of his brothers and a cousin were killed. His mother was cut down as she ran to help her stricken sons. A 4-year-old son trailing behind her was among the other family members injured.

About a month ago, Mr. al-Hajeen said, soldiers who came to the family's plot were told that people slept there at night, and the troops gave assurances that as long as no one approached their positions, the farmers would be safe. Tanks often appeared on the dunes overlooking the area, he said, and during the day local children would wave at them.

An army spokesman said the Palestinians had been warned that movement in the area at night was dangerous. On Wednesday night, the spokesman said, troops looking through night-vision equipment spotted people crawling toward Netzarim and opened fire.

Mr. al-Hajeen said he was thrown into the air by the blast, and later crawled to safety, wounded in the legs. The army said it later found "signs of crawling and a cellular phone" at the scene.

The dead were identified as Ruwaida al-Hajeen, 43; her two sons, Ashraf, 23, and Nihad, 19; and a cousin, Muhammad, 18.

The army said that it had tightened restrictions on fire by tanks in the Gaza Strip and that firing would now require prior approval from more senior officers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/30/international/middleeast/30GAZA.html