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An Ominous Drone in the Gaza Sky

(Washington Post) Molly Moore - Long before dusk, the densely populated Palestinian labyrinth of Jabalya is transformed into a ghost town, with civilians cowering in their apartments and masked gunmen darting through the shadows carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles and homemade bombs. The sound that sows fear is the omnipresent whine of unmanned surveillance aircraft. On Thursday, no one walked the streets without keeping a wary eye on the cloudless sky in search of the brilliant white drone. "Whenever you're out, you look to the sky to see if there are planes or the drone. Everyone is scared," said Khalid Kahlot, 40. When the remote-piloted aircraft fires a missile, "there's no noise, no light, just a 'sphew.' A second later, it hits," said Khaled Abu Habel, 38, who said one of the missiles last Friday killed two of his cousins, both members of Hamas. By mid-afternoon, children and young men start stretching huge cloth sheets across the narrow alleyways to provide cover from prying camera lenses above.
2004-10-08 00:00:00
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