Its a bird, its a plane...its an Israeli Apache

You know thing ain’t right when a child has become so accustomed to warplanes that he confuses them with birds.

Today we went to my father’s farm, and on the way we stopped by a local souk in the Central Gaza Strip. I bought him two little chicks to play with (they later died, I’m sorry to say…though through no fault of my little chick-choker thank you very much). He chased after them gleefully, waving his hands, screaming “jaja..jaja!” (chicken! Chicken!)…I can only imagine the fear that overtook those poor birds, rest their souls.

Later than evening, Israeli helicopter gunships appeared overhead from the nearby Nezerim settlement, on their way to target Palestinian fighters in Khan Yunis. I didn’t notice until yousuf began pointing to the sky asking (confirming?) “jaja? Jaja?”. *sigh*…how do you explain this one to a one-year-old?