The mother of the three dead boys [3, 6, and 9], Linda Balousha, 33, an accountant, was in her bedroom when she heard the shooting. Bodyguards would not let her or her husband down on to the street. "I could smell the smoke and the bullets from the window," she said.

"Their father started to scream: 'the children, the children,' and I saw from the window the white car was stopped, its windows were broken."

There seemed little doubt among the family yesterday that the gunmen had purposely sought to kill the children, not the father. "It wasn't a mistake," said Mrs Balousha. "They were targeting the children." Hamas denies any involvement in deaths.

Only Israelis are capable of doing this