Israeli strike near UN school kills at least 30

[Hatalles]

Source: AP

GAZA CITY, Gaza – An Israeli bombardment struck outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge on Tuesday, the U.N. and Palestinian medics said, killing at least 30 people — many of them children whose parents wailed in grief at a hospital filled with dead and wounded.

An Israeli official said its soldiers came under fire from militants hiding in the school and that the building stored Palestinian munitions.

Despite international criticism over civilian deaths and calls for a cease-fire, Israeli soldiers edged closer to two major Gaza towns. A total of 58 Palestinians were killed Tuesday — with just two confirmed as militants, health officials in Gaza said.

The explosions marked the second time in hours a U.N. school came under attack. It was the deadliest assault since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza last weekend as part of a larger offensive against the ruling Hamas militant group that has killed nearly 600 Palestinians.

Nearly half of the dead are civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.

"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, said after the first strike on the compound of a U.N. school killed three people in a courtyard. The school has served as a shelter for Gaza City refugees fleeing the blistering 11-day offensive.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090106/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

[HeraldSquare212]

1. Gaza Medics: At Least 40 Killed in Israeli Attack at UN School

from that radical news org, the Voice of America:


http://voanews.com/english/2009-01-06-voa28.cfm


By VOA News
06 January 2009

Palestinian medics say at least 40 people have been killed in an Israeli attack at a United Nations-run school in Gaza.


It is the second report of an attack at a U.N. school in the territory Tuesday, the 11th day of Israel's offensive against Hamas militants. Medics say two people died in the other strike, several hours before.

Palestinians say civilians were seeking shelter in the buildings from the Israeli bombardment. Israel has accused Hamas of using schools, mosques and other civilian places to hide.

A U.N. official in Jerusalem told al-Jazeera that his agency had provided Israeli forces the coordinates (exact positions) of its buildings prior to the offensive and has now lodged a formal complaint.

The massive air and ground assault has claimed more than 600 lives, and the United Nations estimates one quarter of the victims were civilians. Many children are among the dead. Another 2,500 people have been wounded.

[mike_c]

2. Israel is now bombing schools and U.N. facilities....

This has to be stopped.

[justsomeguy1973]

48. Your assertion is ridiculous.

Your implication that Israel is intentionally trying to bomb schools and UN facilities is utterly ridiculous. When these sites host terrorists and serve as launch site for rockets into Israel, they should lose their status as a protected target. This site was no longer a school, it became a military target when they started attacking from site.

[Doctor_J]

52. Man, you sound so much like the neocons after Fallujah/Shock & Awe

are you sure DU is the right place for you?

[justsomeguy1973]

60. Appreciate your intolerance

Nice, don't make an argument. Rather stick to casting weak dispersions and pursue the elimination of dissenting voices. Very open minded of you, kudos.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. That excuse is getting old

You know, saying that a building was housing snipers or supplies. I'm beginning to think that the Israeli government mindset is that every Palestinian is a terrorist and so every one of them should be killed.

[SOS]

16. It's just like the ambulances targeted in Lebanon in 06

"Hezbollah was transporting rockets in that ambulance!"

Until Richard Engel of NBC News proved that to be a lie.

[Zodiak]

42. I remember that

Which is why I don't believe the IDF now, and never will again.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[GoesTo11]

4. Hamas wanted this to happen.

"At least 30 people were reportedly killed and 53 wounded in an explosion in a UN-run school in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians. The IDF issued a statement saying the school grounds were used by terrorists to fire mortar shells at the troops.

The infantrymen returned mortar shell fire into the school grounds, the army said. Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site."




http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231167272256&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Firing mortars from a booby trapped building - that they told people was a shelter - filled with civilians?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Because the IDF and Defense would NEVER....

lie about something, would they? Just like George Bush would never lie about torture. :eyes:

With no real independent press allowed in Gaza by Israel, we may never know what exactly happened.

[GoesTo11]

8. More from same article.

snip

At least 30 people were reportedly killed and 53 wounded in an explosion in a UN-run school in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, according
The IDF released a video taken by a UAV last week showing terrorists firing mortar shells from right outside the school.

"Hamas has in the past fired at Israel and at troops from inside schools, cynically using civilians, as is proven by UAV footage," the army said.


Channel 10 reported that the military had a video filmed by a drone proving that the school was used by terrorists to fire mortars at IDF troops.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

12. Why does the headline say "near" a school and the article states, "in a UN-run school?"

[DiamondFrank]

22. Israel has a documented track record of targeting UN compounds

Israel has a documented track record of targeting UN compounds where civilians have taken refuge.

In 1996 it bombed the UN compound in Qana, Lebanon, killing hundreds. The UN demanded an explanation from Israel and an impartial investigation.

In 2006, Israel, again bombed a similar UN compound in Qana, Lebanon. Scores of civilians were killed then as well. In both incidents, UN officials stated that Israel had their GPS coordinates and knew it was a UN camp.

Last night in Gaza, an F-16 targeted the UN school. There were no reports by UN officials of any Hamas fighters using their building or firing from nearby. Yet, Israel repeatedly uses the same canard that it fired on rocket launchers.

So far, Israel has claimed that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Both the UN and the Red Cross on the ground disagree. Israel lied.

Israel claims that it's allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. Both UNRAW and the Red Cross have said that no supplies were being let in.

Israel claims that it is not targeting civilians, yet it has used white phosphorus and cluster bombs.


At this point, Israel's statements are worthless. It has lost whatever credibility it ever had in the first place.


P.S.: The Jerusalem Post is a Rupert Murdoch owned newspaper.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

37. Ehem...

http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKN0643074...

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A U.N. official in Gaza said a school where dozens of Palestinians were killed by tank shells on Tuesday was clearly marked with a U.N. flag and its location had been reported to Israeli authorities.

John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said the death toll in the Israeli artillery strike near the school in Jabalya refugee camp was 30 dead with another 55 people injured

Asked whether Hamas militants were in the area of the Jabalya school at the time of the strike, Ging said it was the scene of clashes "so there's an intense military and militant activity in that area."

He said U.N. staff vetted Palestinians seeking shelter at their facilities to make sure militants were not taking advantage of them. "So far we've not had violations by militants of our facilities," he said.

Hmmmm, who to believe? The IDF or the UN?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4777435#4777519

[olddad56]

55. I'm I the only one that is getting tired of the misuse of the word terrorist?

Why are Israel's enemies called terrorists, but the Palestine's enemies are not called terrorists. They are each others enemy. One group is just as wrong as the other. It is a war between two enemies. War is real fucking ugly. The other side is always the bad guy.

[GoesTo11]

59. The word terrorist has an origin

It comes from their intent to create terror. That is their purpose. Intentional attacks - rockets, suicide bombers - on civilians are meant to create terror among them. When a military force goes after a military force, that may be unpleasant but it isn't creating terror, this is what military forces expect.

[Nihil]

61. So, by your definitions, ...

> Intentional attacks - rockets, suicide bombers - on civilians are meant
> to create terror among them. When a military force goes after a military
> force, that may be unpleasant but it isn't creating terror, this is what
> military forces expect.

... when a suicide bomber blows up a military checkpoint, this isn't terror
(and he/she is not a terrorist) as it is what military forces expect whereas
when rockets, shells & bombs are dropped on innocent civilians in acts of
collective punishment (to be polite) then the people aiming/shooting/dropping
said items are terrorists.

Yep, I think most people will agree with you on that!
:thumbsup:

[WriteDown]

11. But Hamas is a virtuous organization

incapable of lying? Really?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

19. If you noticed...

I posted we will never really know what went down because there is no indepdendent press on scene. :shrug:

In my book, Hammas official=IDF official in credibility.

[DiamondFrank]

28. Israel has banned international reporters

Exactly. Israel has banned international reports from entering the Strip for more than 18 months now.

Then the Israeli government claims that there is no humanitarian crisis. How can they possibly know that if they're not there and are not allowing journalists in either?

[Marrah_G]

62. Personally I think both sides are lying to suit their agenda.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Idealism]

6. According to the IDF, every mosque, school, and ambulance had bombs in it.

[The Stranger]

23. Then get the fuck out of there and stop murdering children.

[GoesTo11]

26. Who? Hamas?

In this tragic incident, Hamas is the one that wanted civilians to die. They set up a trap so that civilians would get killed and they could blame Israel for it. They put in booby traps, the brought in civilians, they then sent mortar fire from there knowing that Israel would return the mortar fire.

If anyone but Hamas did this, it would be called a war crime.

[DiamondFrank]

31. Really?

You sure know a lot about what went down there for someone who's not even in Gaza, nor in Israel for that matter.

Coupled with the fact that Israel has banned journalists into the Strip, your account is as good as a work of fiction from a Tom Clancy novel.

[subsuelo]

33. There's always an excuse/explanation

When you truly believe Israel can do no wrong.

[justsomeguy1973]

49. There's always a rational for why Israelies should be murdered

It's disturbing how you just want to dismiss the fact that Hamas was conducting military operations from this site? Why do you insist on condemning people for self defense?

[subsuelo]

50. where did I provide rationale for why Israelis should be murdered?

Here's a clue: I never have.

[GoesTo11]

36. Let me make that a conditional statement

If the official reports from Israel are true about Hamas booby trapping and firing from the school, then what Hamas did was unbelievably evil.

[Alamuti Lotus]

56. Does this pathetic moral gymnastics help you sleep at night?

It is amazing the lengths certain people will go to defend these things. What is at least entertaining is that while the atrocities are ramped up, so are the rationalizations in support of them.

[GoesTo11]

58. I sleep fine at night, thank you very much

I feel just fine about Israel defending itself - and attacking Hamas in Gaza to do it. It bothers me that Hamas' tactics lead to civilian deaths. But since I don't support Hamas, and I do support Israel who is trying to minimize civilian casualties, this doesn't cause me to lose any sleep.

If Hamas just went and directly said "we are going to kill 100 Palestinians if you don't let us fire rockets at Israel" and then killed the 100 Palestinians (which is basically what they did with this booby trap) when Israel stopped the rockets I would be horrified, but I would certainly understand it to be Hamas' fault entirely. They are just one of those evil groups in the group that you watch and say "damn, it'd be nice if they were gone."

Peace out.

[Junkdrawer]

47. And the Israeli Right wants Hamas to represent the Palistinians...

Netanyahu released Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin in 1997 right at the time that the Israeli/PLO negotiations were at a critical juncture...soon suicide bombers were hitting Israel and the PLO and Arafat were blamed for not being able to control the violence.

More:

...

Israel initially encouraged the rise of the Palestinian Islamist movement as a counter to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the secular coalition composed of Fatah and various leftist and other nationalist movements. Beginning in the early 1980s, with generous funding from the U.S.-backed family dictatorship in Saudi Arabia, the antecedents of Hamas began to emerge through the establishment of schools, health care clinics, social service organizations and other entities that stressed an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, which up to that point had not been very common among the Palestinian population. The hope was that if people spent more time praying in mosques, they would be less prone to enlist in left-wing nationalist movements challenging the Israeli occupation.

While supporters of the secular PLO were denied their own media or right to hold political gatherings, the Israeli occupation authorities allowed radical Islamic groups to hold rallies, publish uncensored newspapers and even have their own radio station. For example, in the occupied Palestinian city of Gaza in 1981, Israeli soldiers -- who had shown no hesitation in brutally suppressing peaceful pro-PLO demonstrations -- stood by when a group of Islamic extremists attacked and burned a PLO-affiliated health clinic in Gaza for offering family-planning services for women.

...

American policy was not much different: Up until 1993, U.S. officials in the consular office in Jerusalem met periodically with Hamas leaders, while they were barred from meeting with anyone from the PLO, including leading moderates within the coalition. This policy continued despite the fact that the PLO had renounced terrorism and unilaterally recognized Israel as far back as 1988.

...

http://www.alternet.org/audits/116855 /

[JerseygirlCT]

51. Yup. When will people realize that Hamas doesn't care in the least

about Palestinian civilians, except as they find them useful for purposes like this?

So long as they are willing to abuse their own, and fire from buildings like schools, then they'll find those buildings made targets.

[Marrah_G]

63. Sadly, neither Hamas or Israel give a damn about Palestinian civilians.

Hamas sees them as human shield, spreading crap about how it is god for people to be martyrs and Israel sees them as collateral damage not worth worrying over, barely human at all.

It's always the innocent people who pay the highest price.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[GoesTo11]

9. You are a fine and sensitive soul

[ShadesOfGrey]

10. You don't think there are innocent civilians in Tel Aviv?

Or maybe you just don't care?

Whatever, that was a sick comment.

[DiamondFrank]

24. Please explain your logic

I don't see how a reasonable person can jump from one extreme to the other.

[ShadesOfGrey]

25. Huh??? n/t

[DiamondFrank]

27. Here

I'm sorry. Was my post too complicated to understand?

I apologize. Let me try again.

Does sympathy for innocent civilians being killed by one of the world's largest armies with chemical and ballistic missiles immediately trigger a "You don't care about Israelis" accusation?

[ShadesOfGrey]

29. Actually, I am more sympathetic to the Palestinians

and I detest the current Israeli government. But that does not mean that I dislike all Israeli's. They are as much a victim of their government as we are of the Bush regime. You do realize that there are MANY Israelis that are horrified by their country's actions don't you? Do they deserve to be nuked too?

[DiamondFrank]

35. OK

I still don't understand how you can make such sweeping conclusions about me. You don't know me and I did not indicate anything in my post that calls for nuking Israel. You sure are making a lot of assumptions based on something that was not written nor intended in my post.

I suppose now you're going to ask me to defend my comments. I don't want Israel to be nuked. By the way, I am an Israeli.

Either way, the disproportionality between the two is like the difference between night and day.

In the last 7 years, Hamas rockets have killed close to 25 Israelis in the Negev.

In the last 10 days, the Israeli army has killed 600 Palestinians and wounded more than 2500.

[ShadesOfGrey]

38. You replied to MY post which was a response to a

post that said Iran should wipe out Tel Aviv. I know you are new but please try to keep up, okay?

I agree with the remaining portion of your post.

[WriteDown]

13. So its a #'s game?

Guess we should eliminate some people in the US too for WWII, WWI, Korea, etc.

[sufrommich]

14. What an asinine statement. nt

[slipslidingaway]

15. K&R n/t

[Celeborn Skywalker]

20. Fuck.

:-(

I pray for the innocents who are dying in both countries, but especially Palestine because they are bearing the brunt of the casualties. Israel needs to step back and consider one moment the bloodshed they are causing.

RIP to all. :cry:

[BelgianMadCow]

21. 46 at least

is what is reported by several outlets here in Belgium.

(eg http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/buitenland/Zeker_46_doden_bij_aanval_in_noorden_Gaza.8124688-439.art )

To "balance" they also mention one rocket causing light injury to a baby in a town 40 km from the border.

[bushmeister0]

30. It's like Qana all over again.

On April 18 1996 the IDF attacked civilians seeking refuge in a UN compound in the Lebanese village of Qana, killing 106 and injuring 116. Again, on July 30 2006 the IDF bombed a house in Qana, in the middle of the night, this time killing 56 civilains, 32 of whom were children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qana

This I wrote on July 31 2006 (it seems to apply to this current massacre.):

"What on earth were they thinking? Who made the call to allow that Israeli pilot to drop his payload and what does this say about the people making the political decisions in the Israeli government? As I've noted previously: Christopher Dickey quoted an Israeli official in a Newsweek article last week saying the US was giving Israel a surprising amount of slack and 'absent a Qana, it might go on.'

Was this a blunder of monumental proportions or does Israel just think the US government will simply sit around and take the heat for them indefinably while they conduct their collective punishment of the Lebanese people? Because, as might have been expected, the response to what King Abdullah II of Jordan called this 'ugly crime,' was almost universal and immediate.

Protests erupted around the region and in Beirut Lebanese of mixed sectarian persuasions ransacked the UN headquarters. Kofi Annan told an emergency meeting of the UN SecurityCouncil, 'Excellencies, we must condemn this action in the strongest possible terms, and I appeal to you to do likewise. No one disputes Israel's right to defend itself. But by its manner of doing so, it has caused, and is causing, death and suffering on a wholly unacceptable scale.'"

http://imnotworthy.blogspot.com/2006/07/oops-they-did-it-again.html

Interestingly, at the time of the massacre, Condi Rice was in Jerusalem hamming it up with Isreal's defense minister in front of the press. What she didn't know was that the Israelis were keeping her in the dark about that "regrettable" mistake. This went on for about eight hours before she finally found out about it from an aide who was, apparaently, monitoring the media filter.

How about that? Here she is taking the heat for Israel, talking about thousand year, sustainable, ceasefires and birthpangs and meanwhile the our good friends are lying right to her face. Beautiful!

[Dover]

32. Strategic timing for Israel

Why did they choose to react now to Hamas's homemade rockets, which have been lobbed at Israel for awhile now?

According to this report there are several reasons:


Gaza is one of the world's most-densely populated places, a vast outdoor prison camp filled with desperate people. In the past, they threw stones at their Israeli occupiers; now they launch home-made rockets.

Call it a prison riot, writ large.

Eyeing the elections

When the so-called truce between Tel Aviv and Hamas expired on December 19, Israeli politicians were in the throes of preparing for the February 10 national elections.

Israeli politics are playing a key role in this crisis.

Ehud Barak, the defence minister and leader of the Labour party, and Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister and leader of the Kadima party, are trying to prove themselves tougher than Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line Likud party - and one another.

Israel's elections are only six weeks away, and Likud was leading until the air raids on Gaza began. Kadima and Labour are now up in the polls.

The heavy attacks on Gaza are also designed to intimidate Israel's Arab neighbours, and make up for Israel's humiliating 2006 defeat in Lebanon, which still haunts the country's politicians and generals.

A fait accompli

When the air raids on Gaza began, Barak said: "We have totally changed the rules of the game."

He was right. By blitzing Hamas-run Gaza, Barak presented the incoming US administration with a fait accompli, and neatly checkmated the newest player in the Middle East Great Game - Barack Obama, the US president-elect - before he could even take a seat at the table.

IN DEPTH

Latest news and analysis from Gaza and Israel

Send us your views and videos

Watch our coverage of the war on Gaza
The Israeli offensive into Gaza now looks likely to short-circuit any plans Obama might have had to press Israel into withdrawing to its pre-1967 borders and sharing Jerusalem.

This has pleased Israel's supporters in North America who have been cheering the war in Gaza and have been backing away from their earlier tentative support for a land-for-peace deal.

Israel's successes in having Western media portray the Gaza offensive as an 'anti-terrorist operation' will also diminish hopes of peace talks any time soon.

Obama inherits this mess in a few weeks. During the elections, Obama bowed to the Israel lobby, offering a new US carte blanche to Israel and even accepting Israel's permanent monopoly of all of Jerusalem.

As he concludes forming his cabinet, his Middle East team looks like it may be top-heavy with friends of Israel's Labour party.

Obama keeps saying he must remain silent on policy issues until George Bush, the outgoing US president, leaves office, but his staff appear happy to avoid having to make statements about Gaza that would antagonise Israel's American supporters.

Obama will take office facing a Middle East up in arms over Gaza and the entire Muslim world blaming the US for the carnage in Gaza.

Unless he moves swiftly to distance himself from the policies of the Bush administration, he will soon find himself facing the same problems and anger as the Bush White House.

Arab deal killed...cont'd

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/war_on_gaza/2009/01/200914102257130539.html

[Chulanowa]

34. If they didn't want to die, then they should stop being Arabs!

Der Vaterland of Israel needs lebensraum, hook-nosed untermencsh be damned!

[mfeher1971]

39. Sure sounds like state-sponsored terrorism to me.

Tell me again why we send over $300B a year to them?

[closeupready]

40. This is horrible.

:(

[question everything]

41. As always, using innocent women and children to shield combatants

An IDF spokesman said that troops had fired mortar rounds at the school, after militants barricaded inside shot mortar shells at the Israeli forces.

"Initial checks ... show that from inside the school mortars were fired at Israeli forces," a spokesman said. "In response, the forces fired a number of mortar rounds into the area."

The army said that the bodies of numerous Hamas militants were found inside the school following the attack.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053138.html

[Zodiak]

43. the same army that is keeping out reporters?

Sorry, if you keep the reporters out deliberately, it is so you can lie without independent verification. Remember Fallujah?

And the IDF has lied before about these very issues. Remember the ambulances in Lebanon?

In order to believe what an entity is saying, they must have credibility. They have none....mostly because of their own actions and past statements.

[StudsT]

44. i would recommend questioning everything that comes from military sources

as an outsider i will take the word of the U.N. over the hostile military on this.

StudsT

[HeraldSquare212]

46. The person in charge for the UN at the site said they are vetting people coming in

and that no militants have entered the grounds. The story is posted on DU.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Alamuti Lotus]

53. Nice to know that the mass murder of children and refugees has its defenders here

Check any one of these discussions -- the continued scrambling for rationalization is becoming a macabre and entertaining side-story in itself.

[Marrah_G]

64. Some people go through life with blinders

For them, it is impossible to see the entire picture. Instead they live and breathe on the propaganda fed to them by the group of their choice.

Any sane human being would be able to clearly see that fault lies on both sides. Neither is innocent.

[unkachuck]

54. "It was the deadliest assault since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza..."

....and I'm sure those slaughtered women and children in that UN school are immensely grateful to Israel for using high-tech precision US made weapons to kill them instead of some sloppy carpet-bombing....being killed precisely matters....

....after all, the Israeli's are a good people....who else would phone you first to warn you that they were going to kill before they killed you?....very decent of them....

....Israel is a small country, the numbers aren't going in their direction....I worry about Israel bringing their neighbors war in the name of peace....some people might misunderstand....

....the day might come when 60+ year old nuclear and missile technology will be as common-place as RPGs and McDonald hamburgers....then what?

....I know Israel and bushco have been blood-brothers, joined-at-the-hip for 8 years....maybe with Obama, a new day might dawn....unfortunately, Obama will have a difficult time demonstrating any significant ME strategy difference....

[IndianaGreen]

57. Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask

Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. "Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties," yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre. And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night's butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive.

What happened was not just shameful. It was a disgrace. Would war crime be too strong a description? For that is what we would call this atrocity if it had been committed by Hamas. So a war crime, I'm afraid, it was. After covering so many mass murders by the armies of the Middle East – by Syrian troops, by Iraqi troops, by Iranian troops, by Israeli troops – I suppose cynicism should be my reaction. But Israel claims it is fighting our war against "international terror". The Israelis claim they are fighting in Gaza for us, for our Western ideals, for our security, for our safety, by our standards. And so we are also complicit in the savagery now being visited upon Gaza.

I've reported the excuses the Israeli army has served up in the past for these outrages. Since they may well be reheated in the coming hours, here are some of them: that the Palestinians killed their own refugees, that the Palestinians dug up bodies from cemeteries and planted them in the ruins, that ultimately the Palestinians are to blame because they supported an armed faction, or because armed Palestinians deliberately used the innocent refugees as cover.

The Sabra and Chatila massacre was committed by Israel's right-wing Lebanese Phalangist allies while Israeli troops, as Israel's own commission of inquiry revealed, watched for 48 hours and did nothing. When Israel was blamed, Menachem Begin's government accused the world of a blood libel. After Israeli artillery had fired shells into the UN base at Qana in 1996, the Israelis claimed that Hizbollah gunmen were also sheltering in the base. It was a lie. The more than 1,000 dead of 2006 – a war started when Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on the border – were simply dismissed as the responsibility of the Hizbollah. Israel claimed the bodies of children killed in a second Qana massacre may have been taken from a graveyard. It was another lie. The Marwahin massacre was never excused. The people of the village were ordered to flee, obeyed Israeli orders and were then attacked by an Israeli gunship. The refugees took their children and stood them around the truck in which they were travelling so that Israeli pilots would see they were innocents. Then the Israeli helicopter mowed them down at close range. Only two survived, by playing dead. Israel didn't even apologise.

Twelve years earlier, another Israeli helicopter attacked an ambulance carrying civilians from a neighbouring village – again after they were ordered to leave by Israel – and killed three children and two women. The Israelis claimed that a Hizbollah fighter was in the ambulance. It was untrue. I covered all these atrocities, I investigated them all, talked to the survivors. So did a number of my colleagues. Our fate, of course, was that most slanderous of libels: we were accused of being anti-Semitic.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-why-do-they-hate-the-west-so-much-we-will-ask-1230046.html

[Barack_America]

65. Update: UN: IDF officers admitted there was no gunfire from Gaza school which was shelled

UN: IDF officers admitted there was no gunfire from Gaza school which was shelled

By Barak Ravid and Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told Haaretz yesterday that the army had conceded wrongdoing.

"In briefings senior officers conducted for foreign diplomats, they admitted the shelling to which IDF forces in Jabalya were responding did not originate from the school," Gunness said. "The IDF admitted in that briefing that the attack on the UN site was unintentional."

He noted that all the footage released by the IDF of militants firing from inside the school was from 2007 and not from the incident itself.

"There are no up-to-date photos," Gunness said. "In 2007, we abandoned the site and only then did the militants take it over."

The UNRWA is now demanding an objective investigation into whether the school shelling constituted a violation of international humanitarian law, and if so, that those responsible stand trial....

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054009.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=242965&mesg_id=242965