He watched 2 missiles destroy his Gaza bookshop: 'Like I had my child in there'

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The call sealing Samir Mansour's bookstore for destruction came in the early morning.

For days, Gaza had been subject to Israeli bombardment, a relentless aerial assault that turned towers, boulevards and commercial districts in an instant into rubble-filled craters. Now, according to the Israeli soldier's voice coming through Mansour's cellphone in accented Arabic, it was the turn of the six-story Kuheil building, which had housed Mansour's bookshop and publishing house since 2008. He had 10 minutes to get out.

Mansour, 53, wasn't there. He was at home, a little more than a mile away, and watched, as if in a trance, a live broadcast of the first missile smacking into the building. He got dressed and headed to the bookshop, thinking he might