Coping With Tragedy In Nazareth
Tourists travel to Nazareth because it is the cradle of Christianity. But today, CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports, 80 percent of the people who live in the city are Muslims.
Many of Nazareth's Muslims call the Bilaal neighborhood home. A local man, Said Bakarni, helped CBS News negotiate its winding streets.
Bakarni describes the area as "a poor neighborhood." Usually, he says, the only thing kids worry about in Bilaal is normal "kid stuff" — bad haircuts, or dodging the cars climbing the steep streets.
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But on Wednesday night, that all changed.
Thirteen-year-old Martez Taluzi was walking home with his brothers from the playground when he heard a rocket. He ran for cover and when the smoke cleared, Martez saw his little brothers dead on the street.
His brothers Mahmoud, 7, and Rabia, 3, were killed.
It was the first time Nazareth has been attacked during the conflict. Being both Israeli and Arab used to mean you were protected. Now, the boys' father says, it means you are forgotten.
Martez's father thinks nobody cares about Arab-Israelis — not the Arabs, who bombed them, and not the Israelis, who refuse to install shelters or sirens in his neighborhood.
"We have nothing!" the boys' uncle yelled at city officials Thursday.
Down the street, the women of Bilaal weren't thinking about the political implications of the attack. They were with the boys' crying mother. She refused to place blame for her sons' deaths. She told us her loyalties are torn — just like her heart.