Children threaten stonings as Gaza's chaos deepens

GAZA, Dec 12 (Reuters) In a sign of just how far security has fallen in the Gaza Strip, a group of children todat took to the streets burning tyres and threatening stonings if the ''adults'' did not stop causing chaos.

Dressed in jeans and a blue shirt, 12-year-old Saeed Salem and his friends said they were enraged by the killing of three young brothers yesterday and fed up with the constant security nightmares that have ruined their short lives.

''We are angry,'' said Salem, as he and his young colleagues set about burning tyres in a central Gaza street. ''We need those who killed the kids to be found and stoned to death.'' His friend, Ahmed, his hands blackened from wheeling abandoned tyres on to the bonfire, said the adults were lost in rivalries and had abandoned the kids to their own business.

''We have no amusment parks to attend and no sport clubs to go to. At least let us live in peace,'' the boy said.

Gaza took another step towards chaos yesterday when gunmen shot dead three brothers, aged between 6 and 9, as they were being dropped off at school.

Their father was an intelligence officer considered close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, giving the killings a political bent, although there is no clear indication yet of who was responsible.

Fatah, the party headed by President Abbas, and its Islamist rival Hamas, which runs the Palestinian government, have blamed one another for the killings, deepening tensions between the movements, both of which are well armed.

President Abbas sent forces on to the streets to try to restore order today and called for a day of mourning for those killed.

But despite the greater security presence, rival gunmen still clashed and at least two people were wounded.

As well as the children, mothers also expressed alarm at the killings and despair at Gaza's spiralling crisis. Radio stations have been jammed with callers denouncing the brothers' deaths.

''Life in Gaza has turned to hell,'' said Umm Mohammad, a veiled woman attending a mourning house to honour the boys.

''The government and the president are busy in their disputes, careless about the people's lives.

''Those who killed the kids had no mercy, had no religion,'' she said. ''I thought of my kids, they could have been among the dead or the wounded.'' Fears about Gaza's future have grown steadily darker in recent months, as tensions between Fatah and Hamas have soared and efforts to overcome international sanctions that have hamstrung the government have failed to achieve results.

Palestinian political analyst Muheeb al-Nawati predicted the worst in an article published this week ''What comes next?'' Nawati asked, pointing out that children do not get shot dead by mistake. ''The answer is we can expect car bombs, an era that moves us to the stage of blood and the scattered remains of unidentified victims on the streets.'' REUTERS SHB HS1912