GAZA CITY (CNN) -- As Israeli Apache helicopters appear again in the skies over Gaza, a child points and others watch and wait. Although the gunships don't fire missiles this time, the nervousness on the always crowded streets of Gaza City is palpable.

Three Israeli missile attacks on Hamas targets within a week have left seven Hamas men dead, but one elderly man also was killed and more than 40 other civilians wounded, many of them children.

"Yesterday, they aim the missile at one man, but all the victims are civilians," says Ahmed, as he sits outside his Gaza store.

Another man, Ashraf, also voices concern for the innocent.

"It's a risky just walking down the street in Gaza, people are really terrified because the Israeli missiles don't differentiate between regular people and the wanted militants," Ashraf says.

People in Gaza City have seen much bloodshed in recent years, but they are especially on edge these days because of what appears to be an all-out Israeli assault on members of Izzedine al Qassam, the military wing of Hamas -- men Israel says have carried out terrorist raids on Israeli civilians or are about to execute such attacks.

Israel launched the latest strikes after a suicide bus bombing last week in Jerusalem killed 21 people and injured more than 130 others. Izzedine al Qassam and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Israel says its actions are self-defense and say the Palestinian Authority is not doing enough to dismantle the terrorists' network.

Palestinians call the missile strikes "assassinations." The bus bombing itself came five days after Israeli forces killed an Islamic Jihad commander, Muhammad Sadr, who Israel said had participated in past attacks on Israelis and was planning new ones.

Israeli security sources say they strive for accuracy in what they call 'targeted killings." They say many such strikes have been called off when it was deemed too unsafe for nearby civilians.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, and Palestinians say even the most accurate missile hitting a car on these streets is highly likely to deliver its shrapnel to more than the intended target.

Six children were among the wounded from Tuesday's missile attack.

"This poor girl, what did she do?" asks Fatma, a nurse.

The girl in question, 9-year-old Sana Al Daour, is in a coma and on a respirator. Doctors say the attack has left her a quadriplegic.

Another victim, a 16-year-old boy, is a brain dead, according to doctors.

In Gaza's Shifa Hospital, those wounded by the attacks on Gaza's teeming streets aren't impressed by the accuracy of Israeli missiles.

"It's not just the person they target, it's the people around that target," says Fatma. "Of course I'm scared."

Despite the casualty rate among bystanders, there's no visible public pressure on Hamas to stop the attacks on Israel. To the contrary, there is strong support in Gaza for Hamas.

Meanwhile, most people here say they have to go about their business, even if they take precautions with loved ones.

"I told my family, especially my sisters to stay at home till the end of this week," Ashraf says.

Israel uses an array of intelligence sources to pinpoint its targets. Unmanned drones circle the skies over the city. Cell phone signals are intercepted. Some locals -- collaborators to the Palestinians -- turn in the militants.


Sana Al Daour, 9, is in a coma and on a respirator after Tuesday's missile attack.
Hamas itself acknowledges the Israeli intelligence apparatus, and the group is changing its tactics. On the Web site of Hamas' military wing is a six-point guide to militants.

Use cell phones sparingly, it reads, and if you must use them, don't give out details. Drive only when necessary, and when you do, drive alone.

Other tips instruct followers to use disguises, avoid main roads and travel by crowded back streets to avoid surveillance from the air.

The Web site also instructs its members to develop a sense of who may be watching them, warning that it may be a drone in the sky, a shopkeeper, or even their neighbor.

In the wake of the Israeli strikes, Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives have gone to ground. People that CNN never had any trouble contacting are now unreachable.

The militants' job description includes the deadly game of hide and seek with Israeli military forces.

But for people on the streets who don't deal in death, the prospect of facing death has become an everyday reality.

T Rasul Murray, a poet from New York, went south to join the civil rights movement at the height of the bus boycotts and restaurant sit-ins in the early 1960s. He later worked on the team coordinating the march for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
I was a marshal at the March on Washington. On the day, there was an overriding sense of the massive nature of the event.


All we did with hope and visions of transformation did little but exhaust the dream

Apprenticed, a poem inspired by the civil rights movement, by T Rasul Murray


Listen to the poem Apprenticed in full

So many people had come from so far away. I remember standing near a group of women, who were talking about their long bus journey from the south. They were excitedly telling the story about how they had stopped to use the rest-rooms, but because the queue for the ladies' was much longer than that of the men's they appropriated the men's room.

The breadth of the response to the call to Washington had sparked a tremendous sense of excitement and expectation. It was something that characterised the whole period. It later turned out to be a relatively unfounded sense of possibilities.

The sponsors of the march, known as the "Big 10", had brought together a phenomenally wide range of political attitude and strategic and tactical sensibilities.

It ranged from the churches, which had just begun to develop a limited sense that they might step away from the mainstream and engage in social action, to the SNCC, which was the most radical group.

But that sense of unity was not without its problems. On the morning of the march, there was a major issue over some of the content of the speech by SNCC chairman John Lewis.

He had drafted a speech that said: "We will march through the South, through the heart of Dixie the way Sherman did... We shall pursue our own scorched earth policy."

The Roman Catholic Church, in particular, pressed for it to be toned down, and John, in deference to the coalition and with a lot of resistance from much of the SNCC membership, made the concessions in the interests of letting the event go on.

There is no question that since that time, structural changes have been made in the nature of this country. The existence of de jure [legal] segregation, for example, has been eliminated.

But our expectations at the time were larger than were ever realised. There is a continuing presence of poverty and racism in the country, and an inordinate incarceration of African-American males.

There is also the continuance of white supremacist attitudes, albeit many of them subtle, and despite the explosion of an African-American middle class, there is still a glass ceiling.

There is still a major resistance in this country to acknowledging any responsibility for the consequences of the enslavement of African peoples, and a major fight over affirmative action. These are indicative of the fact that the grand vision has not been fulfilled.

At least 33 people have died in a stampede at a Hindu religious festival in western India.
Many others have been injured in the incident, near the town of Nasik, north-east of Bombay in the state of Maharashtra.

The devotees were attending one of India's Kumbh Mela festivals.

During the festival, millions of Hindus seek to bathe in the holy waters of the Godavari river.

Accounts of the disaster are confused, and it is not clear what caused the stampede.

Some reports say it began when thousands of worshippers broke through a barricade put up in a narrow lane in Nasik.




Click here for images of the stampede
"The police couldn't control the crowd. They broke down the barricade," the local member of parliament, Uttam Rao Dhikle told reporters.

"The crowds were all trying to reach the same area."

Other reports say the stampede began as pilgrims scrambled to pick up money thrown by holy men.

"The [injured] are being treated and we are trying our best to provide all facilities," Maharashtra state's Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar told the AFP news agency.

However, rescue workers said they were having trouble reaching the victims.

"Even our waiting ambulances cannot reach the spot to give first aid to the trampled people," one official was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Hindu myth

The colourful Kumbh Mela (Grand Pitcher) festival opened in Nasik on 30 July.

Wednesday is the third of the five most auspicious days during the festival, when pilgrims take a dip into the Godavari river in the belief that it washes away sin.

STAMPEDE HISTORY
1999: 52 dead at shrine in southern Indian state of Kerala
1986: 50 dead at festival in Haridwar
1954: about 800 die during Kumbh Mela in Allahabad
The festival is held four times every 12 years at four holy sites - Nasik, Ujjain, Haridwar and the main one, Allahabad.

The significance of the ceremonies stems from a Hindu myth that gods spilt four drops of the nectar of immortality at four points in India during a fight with demons.

Stampedes are not uncommon at major Hindu religious festivals, which can attract millions of worshippers.

In 1999, 52 pilgrims died after a landslide caused panic at a Hindu shrine in southern India.

In 1986, 50 people died in a stampede in the town of Haridwar on the Ganges, and in 1954 about 800 pilgrims died during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad.

In Bangladesh, a leader of the main opposition Awami League party has been killed by unidentified assailants on a busy street in the capital, Dhaka.

Gunman shoots 5 at Chicago warehouse
A Chicago warehouse worker described as "on the brink of being terminated" shot five people at the southside facility before police stormed the building. A police spokesman said the gunman also was shot before being taken out in handcuffs. The medical examiner's office said there may be fatalities.

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This comment was deleted on Aug 27, 14:45.

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This comment was deleted on Aug 27, 14:46.

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