Israel shells U.N.-run school in Gaza Strip, killing at least 10

[DonViejo]

Source: Washington Post

Israeli forces shelled a U.N.-run school filled with Palestinian refugees in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 100, Palestinian officials said.

Several shells hit the school run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Beit Hanoun, the Gaza Health Ministry said

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-hamas-show-no-signs-of-bowing-to-pressure-for-truce/2014/07/24/90213d90-1305-11e4-8936-26932bcfd6ed_story.html

[Orrex]

1. More of the photogenic dead.

Shame on them for being killed to photogenically.

[cprise]

33. Indeed. 'Yahu prefers them blasted to smithereens. n/t

[ballyhoo]

2. There will be an accounting for this.

[Dragonfli]

10. Doubtful, they have yet to be held to account for any of their atrocities.

There are two terrorist organizations at play here and one of them is funded and protected by the US and so is immune to accountability. The other is rightfully vilified, but the favored one (the Likud extremists) are Teflon.

[ballyhoo]

21. I'm talking about a different

accounting. An accounting from others, whom I will not name. But I agree with everything you said.

[HooptieWagon]

27. You think Obama will send them a strongly worded letter...

... after promising them hundreds of millions in additional military aid in order to kill more children?

[ballyhoo]

29. I don't include Obama in any of my

considerations, but I understand your post.

[COLGATE4]

3. One of the schools that had rockets hidden in it?

[LannyDeVaney]

4. Wait ...

are you implying the U.N. is aiding Hamas? Per the article, this was a U.N.-run school for refugees.

[COLGATE4]

6. No, I'm referring to the two other UN schools

that were found to be being used to warehouse rockets. UNWWR officials didn't inform Israel about it. It's a legitimate question.

[LannyDeVaney]

9. So ...

You are implying the U.N. is aiding Hamas.

[COLGATE4]

12. I'm not implying anything. I'm stating that

representatives of the UNWWR knew Hamas was stockpiling rockets in two of their school buildings and did nothing about it. You can draw whatever conclusions you like from that.

[JackRiddler]

20. Well then, kill those children!

[azurnoir]

23. The 2 schools were vacant UNRWA made formal statements about both on their website

and Israel knew full well about it as it was a prominent feature in Israeli papers

[Dragonfli]

7. Yes the UN is notoriously fond of firing missiles

[COLGATE4]

13. Try to keep up. Rockets have already been discovered

in two other UN schools in Gaza. Read the first line in the next post.

[Dragonfli]

15. You mean the abandoned ones? You try to keep up

In what world do you live in where bombing UN run schools is cheer worthy? I have a feeling it is a bit south of both heaven and earth.

[COLGATE4]

16. Abandoned or not they still belong to the UN.

There is no reason the UN should have turned a blind eye to their being used as weapons depots, except the obvious one - that workers of the UNWWR are sympathetic to Hamas. And, in case you also haven't noticed, Hamas has constructed bunkers below schools and hospitals in Gaza, hoping to make them less available as targets. I don't cheer the bombing, but I do recognize the need for it.

[azurnoir]

25. the UN found while inspecting vacant buildings and announced quite publicly on their website

[geek tragedy]

8. A war crime whether or not there was.

And there is zero evidence that there were any rockets on this school. Unlike other abandoned UN buildings, this one was operated by the UN.

Whoever ordered this attack, and those who executed it, belong in prison the rest of their lives.

[killbotfactory]

14. Yes, Hamas hides weapons and crap all over Gaza

That makes killing indiscriminately okay.

Because, you never know...

[COLGATE4]

17. OK. What's YOUR solution? Let Israel continue to let

its people be shelled by at least one per hour rocket fire from Gaza? Grin and bear it?

[killbotfactory]

18. I would refrain from attacking places that people were told to take refuge in. nt

[COLGATE4]

39. What about attacking places where the people

received advance warning that they would be bombed and given time to evacuate but who were told by their leaders to disregard the warning and stay in place as human shields? Refrain from attacking then?

[shaayecanaan]

47. what about where the party doing the bombing

couldn't give a shit about civilian casualties but from time to time drops some leaflets mainly as a bullshit public relations exercise. What then?

[COLGATE4]

49. You know as well as I do that, if Israel really didn't give

a shit about civilian casualties the death toll would be infinitely higher than it is. And you didn't answer the question.

[shaayecanaan]

50. there's a difference

between giving a shit and making allowances for the fact that the world does. The Israelis don't give a shit themselves but they try to operate within the vague parameters of world opinion in assessing how many Arabs they can get away with killing. Unless you think that four kids playing soccer on a beach are really Hama's operatives.

My suggestion? Get out of the west bank and stop the blockade of gaza. If they leave, and the Palestinians attack them, they can butcher the Arabs with a clear conscience. But they need to leave first.

[COLGATE4]

51. If they leave, and the Palestinians attack them, they can butcher the Arabs with a clear conscience

You've got to be kidding.

[COLGATE4]

52. Like when they left Gaza? nt

[shaayecanaan]

53. If you steal ten apples from me

and then return three back to me, that does nothing to resolve the issue of the seven outstanding apples. If Israel wants to square things with the Palestinians, they need to leave the West Bank.

[COLGATE4]

55. My point being that Israel already tried the approach

you suggest on a trial basis when it abandoned Gaza. Immediately thereafter rocket fire from Gaza began into Israel and it hasn't halted yet. No reason to believe that abandoning the West Bank would produce any different results.

[shaayecanaan]

56. Began?

You make a simple mistake: the withdrawal from gaza followed the development of the Qassam rocket, not the other way around. Once Hamas developed home made artillery rockets and mortars the defence of the gaza settlements was made impossible, and there was accordingly nothing for Israel to do except to pack up and leave, or stay in gaza and let Hamas kill their soldiers from time to time.

In fact Hamas fired none of its rockets for a period of twenty months prior to now, beginning only when Israel started jailing and killing its members in the West Bank. As periods of quiet go, that is much longer than anything achieved when Israel was occupying the Gaza Strip.

[COLGATE4]

46. In other words, Israel should just continue to take it.

[COLGATE4]

41. What you DO know is that those weapons and crap

will be aimed indiscriminately at Israeli civilians.

[killbotfactory]

42. All the more reason for the good guys to bomb and shell Gaza indiscriminately. nt

[rhett o rick]

5. This is insane. nm

[bemildred]

19. Barking mad. nt

[Turbineguy]

11. But it was only supposed to be used

for storing weapons!

[Fred Sanders]

22. So bombs and mortars and explosives are now "shells". Aww...shells landed on the schools, so what?

Propaganda in war time is a monstrous thing, and America has blood on its hand also parroting
Israeli propaganda and softening the news of all deaths.

Evil is being witnessed by the world, only a few usual suspect nations are applauding, the massive
Protests and criticism around the world will. to be heard in the ensnared American media or in cowardly American politics.

[NeoConsSuck]

43. You hit the nail on the head...

CNN is stating on their website that it is unknown whether it was Israeli 'shells' or Hamas. I guess that's the memo being sent around to american media.

[hrmjustin]

24. My God! Have they no mercy!

[madaboutharry]

26. You changed the headline.

The headline does not specify "Israel." In fact, it has not been determined who is responsible and it may have been caused by Hamas. Your post is dishonest.

[HooptieWagon]

28. Bullshit.

[madaboutharry]

30. Read the story.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. The original headline did have that (it's still on google like that)

and WP updated it like they do with most of their online stories as more info comes in (which was after the OP was posted).

[Fred Sanders]

32. It was an elementary school, 15 dead, they were very telegenically dead, with severed baby limbs and

all that.

Bibi has gone mad, the Israeli military is a mad mans play thing now.

Updated:

"GAZA CITY — A U.N.-run school crowded with Palestinian evacuees in the northern part of the Gaza Strip came under shelling on Thursday, leaving at least 15 people dead and more than 100 wounded, Palestinian officials said.

Several shells hit the main building and courtyard of the elementary school run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Beit Hanoun, witnesses and Palestinian officials said. They said the school was filled with women and children who had fled their homes to escape more than two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the militant Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip."

[Comrade Grumpy]

34. They are creating a new generation of people that will hate Israel forever.

Israel will pay for this for a long time.

[Purveyor]

35. UPDATE: 15 Die In Shelling Of U.N. Shelter In Gaza; Israel Says Warning Issued

A United Nations shelter in northern Gaza was shelled on Thursday, causing “multiple deaths and injuries,” according to a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency.

At least 15 people were killed and scores hurt when a school compound in Beit Hanoun, designated as a haven for the displaced, was bombarded by Israeli forces amid heavy fighting with Palestinian militants, a Gaza health official said.

Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the U.N. Refugee and Works Agency, or UNRWA, tweeted that the precise coordinates of the shelter had been relayed to Israeli forces.

Israel’s Defense Forces issued a statement Thursday saying that they had ordered the Red Cross to evacuate civilians from the shelter in Belt Hanoun late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

According to the IDF, Hamas militants prevented civilians from evacuating and continued firing rockets from the area around the shelter.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-gaza-ceasefire-remains-elusive-20140724-story.html

[Cognitive_Resonance]

37. The Israeli propaganda machine can't get their lies straight. The IDF first blamed Hamas for firing

on the shelter, then issued their usual bs about human shields and the heat of battle, now they're claiming warnings were not headed. Just eff'em.

[Iamthetruth]

40. So you're saying hamas

has earned your belief and you feel they are trustworthy.

[NeoConsSuck]

44. About as trustworthy as Israel

[Iamthetruth]

45. Maybe you should watch this

[link:http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2014/07/24/exp-erin-intv-dermer-mideast-crisis-u-n-shelter-in-gaza-hit.cnn&video_referrer=|

[shaayecanaan]

48. ah, the old false dichotomy arguments

If you don't accept uncritically what Israel has to say, you must support hamas.

[countryjake]

36. ...

[Iamthetruth]

38. Eventually it will be verified

That this was not an IDF attack but either hamas rockets that went wrong or it was done intentionally by hamas. CNN is already reporting that there are no "weapon scraps" around the scene as there should be if it were shells or bombs. They also said there is no impact crater as there normally would be. We also know that hamas has no issues killing innocent civilians if it advances their views.

[deathrind]

54. If Israel stopped evicting people...

From their homes in order to bulldoze them down to take the land and build a settlement (which has been ruled illegal) people would probably stop throwing a things at them. What Hamas does is wrong but both sides bear a responsibility for the unrest.