The UN has said that “on 4 January Israeli foot soldiers evacuated approximately 110 Palestinians into a single-residence house in Zeitun (half of whom were children) warning them to stay indoors. Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately 30.”
Just like the Jabalya refugee camp UN school.
Just like Qana, 2006.
Just like Qana, 1996.
As Fadi reiterated:
In April, 1996, Israel attacked a UN compound in southern Lebanon. In that instance, Israel first dropped leaflets in surrounding villages telling the civilians to flee. After the civilians found refugee in the UN compound at Qana, Israeli war planes attacked the compound with precision killing over 100 civilians.Israel’s apologists claim that the murder resulted from “an errant shell.” However, dozens of shells were used in the bombing. An independent UN investigation confirmed that the bombing was was unlikely to be a product of technical or procedural errors.
The majority of times that Israel kills innocent civilians (and, objectively, Israel has killed a very large number of civilians over the past 60 years), it expresses regret for the loss of innocent life. However, such expressions of regret do not bring back those that died, and come off as disingenuous when proceeded by some attempt at justification.
Related posts:
- One Good Thing Today:
- Israel Targets Civilians To Spread Fear, Submission
- Israel’s “Oops, Sorry” Not Good Enough
- Israeli Massacre in Qana. Again.
- Footage of Israeli Soldiers Beating Palestinian Children
Just like Israel war on Lebanon in 2006, when Israel could not inflict casualties among Hizbullah fighters, they went for the arm twisting by targeting civilians. It is now doing the same in Gaza, with the exception of the first day of the massacre, when Israel bombed the graduation of the police academy, it has not been able to inflict casualties among Hamas fighters, so they are targeting the civilians to teach Hamas a lesson. Call it mass execution, call it collective punishment, Israel is basically taking hostages and executing them.
Posted by Fayyad | January 9, 2009, 10:24 amFrom the Ynet article you linked up:
Military officials said in reponse to the accusation that “from initial examinations in the IDF there is no knowledge of any incident in which IDF forces moved people from one building to another.
“Furthermore, the claim that the building was attacked on January 4, in 24-hours after the IDF entered the Gaza Strip is unreasonable since the IDF forces had not yet reached the areas in question on this date.
“An Israeli television network examination of the matter with hospitals in the area showed the hospitals had no knowledge of such an incident.”
There should be an investigation. And if the investigation proves Israel blameless, Emily should write a post to apologize to the IDF for a campaign of unfounded smears.
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 10:45 amIsrael always denies its war crimes within the first few hours or days of it happening.
Who’s word are we going to trust? The UN or an Israeli military soldier?
Keep exposing Israels bullshit Emily.
Posted by Super Sayyin | January 9, 2009, 11:02 amYes, if the IDF claims that the IDF did nothing wrong, then we should all apologize for taking the UN at its word. What a silly, stupid suggestion.
Posted by Fadi | January 9, 2009, 11:05 amThe fact that Israel has repeatedly attacked identified refuges for civilians shows that they have no regret for targeted civilian casualties. Investigations have already determined that Israel has been unprovoked in attacking the UN school, UN humanitarian aid workers and impeding efforts of the Red Cross. So these smears, as you want to call them, are based on and supported by the reputation of Israeli forces in their disregard for human rights.
Unfortunately I don’t think we’d receive an apology from Israel for the civilian lives lost at the identified attacks for any of the other massacres they have committed, Lebanon, repeatedly Gaza and the rest of Palestine, and any refugee camp where mass civilian casualties have been committed.
I think it would be in the right for Israel to apologize for its actions before Emily apologizes for her highlighting of the atrocities committed by Israel.
Posted by Wael Bakr | January 9, 2009, 11:08 amIt is not UN’s words. They have not seen any of this. It is from some “witnesses”, whoever they can be. Might be some Hamas terrorists?
Posted by Tony | January 9, 2009, 11:21 amKabob posted video of an atrocity last week that it said was due to israeli airstrike. In fact it turned out it was from 2005, when a Hamas truck carrying explosives detonated due to Hamas stupidity, killing 15 innocent people, men, women and children.
Kabob didn’t apologize for that, and if they are wrong on this, they will not apologize for this either. Their job is propaganda forHamas not truth
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 11:28 amWell, it wasn’t very lethal. I mean, shelling a house with 110 people, and killing only 30 of them?
Interesting claim, and no corroborating evidence. Smells like a fake atrocity, but we’ll see.
All we have so far are reports the UN has received, which Emily disingenuously attributes to the UN itself.
It’s ok, though. She’s not dishonest, she’s just overwrought.
Posted by Roy | January 9, 2009, 11:33 amif hamas has time for propaganda it means idf is not hitting them hard enough
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 11:39 amIsrael lies again, retards!
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054009.html
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 11:56 am“It is not UN’s words.”
Tony, click on the link. This comes from a UN report.
Posted by Fadi | January 9, 2009, 11:57 amFadi, click on the link. The report is saying what they heard:
“According to several testimonies, on 4 January Israeli foot soldiers …”
Posted by Roy | January 9, 2009, 11:59 amSo let me get this straight, Roy, Israel is bombing the bejesus out of Gaza, and the UN issues a report saying that the civilians were placed in the building and then bombed 24 hours later. Meanwhile, as corroborated by the Red Cross, for days the Israeli army was preventing people from reaching the site. Yet somehow, you are actually positing that this sounds like a fake atrocity? You destroy your own credibility with such stupid declarations.
Do you still insist that Hamas was firing from the UN school?
Posted by Fadi | January 9, 2009, 12:04 pmRoy,
click on the haaretz article. even a zionist paper published that israeli soldiers admitted there was no shelling coming from the school when they bombed it killing 30 civilians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054009.html
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 12:10 pmIsrael’s apologists claim that the murder resulted from “an errant shell.”
No, they don’t. Army Deputy Chief of Staff, Matan Vilnai stated that the shells hit the base not because they were off target, but because Israeli gunners used outdated maps of the area. He also stated that the gunners miscalculated the firing range of the shells.
Do you have some footage of Israelis passing out candy to celebrate the event, though?
Posted by Roy | January 9, 2009, 12:13 pmAnon 12:10: addressed in a different thread. Now, if you’re going to say “click on” something, make it clickable.
Posted by Roy | January 9, 2009, 12:15 pmDo you still insist that Hamas was firing from the UN school?
I never insisted that Hamas was firing from the school. You destroy your own credibility with such misstatements.
Posted by Roy | January 9, 2009, 12:17 pmDing Dong.
No Demographic Time Bomb for you! So sowwy.
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 12:19 pm“Israel’s apologists claim that the murder resulted from ‘an errant shell.’
No, they don’t.”
-Roy
You’re making it too easy Roy. Here’s what you wrote just a couple days ago:
“The 1996 incident was the result of an errant shell.”
In contrast to your claim that you never said Hamas used the UN compound, here’s another one of your gems:
“Actually, it would be illegal to target such a compound only if it were not being used for military purposes. That’s why Hamas is wrong for using it that way.”
Posted by Fadi | January 9, 2009, 12:24 pmanon 11:28, we apologized for our mistake, and you know it.
you lose a lot of credibility when the truth is a few scrolls down the page.
Posted by Mohammad | January 9, 2009, 12:33 pmAnon 11:28, don’t worry. I will personally get a team of investigative professionals to confirm Mohammad’s claims. It might take a couple of weeks to get the assets in place. In the meantime, we can stand by the statement that Kabob did not apologize for the 2005 video in which Hamas exterminated 15 palestinians
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 12:38 pmAnon claims that Kabob did not apologize. Mohammad claims that Kabob did apologize. As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Frontline investigates…
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 12:39 pmwith all due respect to everyone who deserves it,
it was stated that the reason behind the “incident” was the use of ” outdated maps?
Im pretty young, but even i know that one of the strongest military in the world should check thier maps before shelling an area.
And how old can that map be? seriously.
Posted by milad | January 9, 2009, 12:40 pmHere’s what you wrote just a couple days ago:
“The 1996 incident was the result of an errant shell.”
Then my wording was poorly-chosen, but I linked and quoted the same article as above, with the same explanation. It was not the intended target; the targeting data were bad.
It’s a little disingenuous to see my words immediately followed by the explanation I quoted, and to then argue that I’m saying something other than the explanation I quoted.
In contrast to your claim that you never said Hamas used the UN compound
I didn’t say that. I said I never “insisted that Hamas was firing from the school”. The compound is bigger than the school, and the school itself was not shelled. Only people outside the school were killed. And there were Hamas outside the school (and they were killed).
Posted by Roy | January 9, 2009, 12:47 pmHere is the apology. Took me 5 sec to find.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/harrowing-view-of-death-in-gaza.html
You are both idiots, it is so easy to find a freakin’ link!
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 1:34 pmI’m sorry we cannot accept information from third parties. The independent investigation must maintain the integrity of the process. Please give us several weeks to assemble a team of experts. Until then, we must accept that Kabob did NOT apologize for lying to its readership and blaming Israel for civilian deaths caused by Hamas.
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 1:37 pmSad that in Roy’s world killing 30 of 110 civilian inhabitants of a house isn’t very lethal.
killing almost 30% of a group of civilians isn’t very lethal.
What i think is if say 90 members of Roy’s family and friends were gathered somewhere and 25 of them were killed suddenly without reason, he would think otherwise.
Posted by wael bakr | January 9, 2009, 2:53 pmThank you for posting this story. Why would anyone defend or make an excuse for what AT BEST is a mistake by the IDF and if proven not to be a mistake, a horrific war crime?
Posted by Anonymous | January 9, 2009, 2:56 pmWait a second…
Kabobfest made a huge apology for the post made by Kalash. Are you guys just going to repeat this lie over and over?
The apology has been posted earlier but I will post it again for you retards.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/harrowing-view-of-death-in-gaza.html
OH and HERE is the text of the apology if you are to lazy to cut and paste the link or to stupid to understand it.
“KABOBfest apologizes if the reputation of Israel was tarnished at all by this mistake. The following has been edited to correct for our error.”
Posted by Super Sayyin | January 9, 2009, 3:47 pmThe “outdated maps” excuse is bogus.
Anyone who knows anything about how artillery fire is directed knows that maps are used only to determine the grid coordinates of a particular position. For purposes of determining grid coordinates, “outdated” military maps are usually extremely accurate, so long as you have properly identified the position you wish to fire upon. The grid coordinates of the UN compound would most likely have been known in advance, just as was the case with the UN schools in Gaza.
In order for artillery to accurately fire at a particular target requires the use of a “forward observer” to physically observe the target. This is particularly true when using “airbursts” or shells that are designed to explode in mid-air raining shrapnel down on personnel below. The shells not only require correct aiming by the guns to put them over the target area, but careful setting for the fuses for split-second accuracy because if they are timed too long, they will impact into the ground and if too short, will explode too high in the air to do much damage. In other words, accurately placed airbursts of the type used at Qana were not likely to be the result of random error, as random shells would have likely hit the ground before exploding or exploded too high up. The precision required is too great for it to be otherwise.
The UN’s military expert also showed that there was evidence of the fire being “adjusted” onto the target by a forward observer in a process described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_artillery
a) The distribution of impacts at Qana shows two distinct concentrations, whose mean points of impact are about 140 metres apart. If the guns were converged, as stated by the Israeli forces, there should have been only one main point of impact.
(b) The pattern of impacts is inconsistent with a normal overshooting of the declared target (the mortar site) by a few rounds, as suggested by the Israeli forces.
(c) During the shelling, there was a perceptible shift in the weight of fire from the mortar site to the United Nations compound.
(d) The distribution of point impact detonations and air bursts makes it improbable that impact fuses and proximity fuses were employed in random order, as stated by the Israeli forces.
(e) There were no impacts in the second target area which the Israeli forces claim to have shelled.
(f) Contrary to repeated denials, two Israeli helicopters and a remotely piloted vehicle were present in the Qana area at the time of the shelling.
While the possibility cannot be ruled out completely, it is unlikely that the shelling of the United Nations compound was the result of gross technical and/or procedural errors.
So to fire artillery accurately at the UN compound would require that a spotter be used, in which case they would have know damn well they were firing on the UN compound based on the big, white “UN” they have painted on the walls, or the Israelis would have had to just pick a target at random off the map and fire a barrage at it at random, in which case the odds of that random target just happening to be the UN compound would be very small, particularly as the attack involved accurate aiming and timing of airbursts which would be near impossible to do randomly.
As always, Israel gave conflicting accounts of what happened, claiming that Hezbollah fired from the UN compound in one and that they accidentally fired on it due to outdated maps in the other. Both are bullshit.
Posted by Sean | January 9, 2009, 4:11 pmSad that in Roy’s world killing 30 of 110 civilian inhabitants of a house isn’t very lethal.
I was referring to the Official Kabobfest Position on Hamas Rockets: they aren’t “very lethal”, so they should be ignored.
If you’ve gathered up a bunch of helpless people to kill them, and you only manage to kill less than 30% of them, you’re not trying very hard.
Posted by Roy | January 10, 2009, 8:12 amYou deny your sick logic with more sick logic Roy
Posted by Wael Bakr | January 10, 2009, 1:40 pm