Gaza City- It was 7:30 am when Najah Rahim, 32,  was carrying her two year old son Amir,after having changed his clothes. Both the boy and his mother had not slept the last night. The Israeli army was attacking the neighbourhood of Shejaiya where they live.

Amir's mother was talking to her 14 year old daughter and another three relatives about the incursion; the Israeli army was still attacking the neighbourhood. When the sound of a shot was heard, the mother did not care at first. What was a shot compared to explosions of the tank shells she had heard the whole night.

"I looked at Amir, his eyes were half closed, he wasn't ok", said a swollen-eyed grieving mother. "I looked at his head-back, and realized, he was shot".

Ahmad, and his son Karam, 13, dashed toward the street, the ambulance was close to the house, but it could do nothing for a dead boy. "I knew he was dead", the father said.

In the morning of May 1st, 2003 , at 1:30 am , the Israeli army stormed the Shejaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City , triggering one of the deadliest battles of the Palestinian intifada. Fourteen Palestinians were killed, more than 60 were injured. The dead included the Amir Ayad and two teenagers.

"Amir was the amusement of the house. He used to go to his grandfather everyday, sit on his lap and say: I want coffee with sugar grandfather," Mr. Ayad said.

The father was still receiving condolences; plastic chairs were lined up in the street, palm branches were tied to electricity pillars. Amir's picture was stuck on the neighbourhood's walls.

Amir's mother left it to her husband to receive condolences, on the third day of her son's death. She was sitting among the women in the house, but talked to nobody.

"Amir [prince] is a prince in heaven," his father said. "This is not the end. I ask God to compensate me with another gift. I am sure he will give me another son like Amir."

For Amir's brothers, Amir is a now a bittersweet tale they tell everybody. "I am proud because my brother is a martyr," Naji, 11, said. 

At least 450 Palestinian children under 18 have been killed since the outbreak of the current intifada, according to the latest figures from The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

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