Should parents let their kids play in the (Arab) street?
I found this paragraph in a Yahoo news story about the latest Israeli-Palestinian clashes.

"Elsewhere, Israeli troops met with resistance, especially in the adjacent Tulkarem refugee camp to which many gunmen had fled. Tanks had difficulty entering some of the camp's alleys and groups of children followed the gunmen around as they fired at armored vehicles."

(Emphasis mine.)

Why are these children allowed to follow gunmen around while they are shooting their weapons? Would you allow your child to mill around in the street while it is being attacked? I question whether some of the parents of these kids care about their children's safety.

If the parents don't care about keeping their kids off the street when gunfire is being exchanged, then maybe the soldiers ought to take the kids into custody, just like children would be removed from a home if they were being abused by their parents.

I suspect that these children are being allowed to be in harms way to make the Israeli soldiers' job more difficult, so they have to worry about accidentally hurting a child. (And if they do, then they look like the villains. Never mind that their parents let the kid follow the pursued gunmen around, getting in the Israeli soldiers' way, etc.) If the parents are letting their children roam freely through a warzone with no supervision, then they don't have the child's best interests at heart.

Agree or disagree? What do you think? Are these kids being used by their parents in a bad way?