Whilst the BBC were quick to say Israel was to blame for the deaths at the UN school they’ re not so keen to say Israel isn’t to blame…merely ‘Israel rejects the blame’...
Israel rejects Gaza school shelter attack blame
The Israeli army has insisted that a mortar round it fired into a UN shelter in Gaza on Thursday in a clash with “militants” was not responsible for the deaths of at least 15 people.
The BBC curiously, for all its eager uptake of the digital revolution and use of social media, hasn’t linked to the IDF video (above).
Within the last hour, the IDF released the following statement:
Since Thursday, July 24, 2014, the IDF has conducted a comprehensive inquiry regarding the incident in which the UNRWA school was fired upon. The inquiry concluded that during the intense fighting between IDF forces and Hamas militants, the militants operated adjacent to the UNRWA school. The militants fired anti-tank missiles at IDFsoldiers, who then responded by firing several mortars in their direction.
The inquiry and the documented footage presented here concluded that a single errant mortar landed in the courtyard of the UNRWA school, when it was completely empty.
The IDF stresses it does not operate or target international organizations in the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing coordination conducted via the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) is continuous without change, even during times of combat.
In light of the inquiry’s findings, the IDF rejects the claims that were made by various officials immediately following the incident, that people were killed in the school premises as a result of IDF operational activity.
Time now for another “Balen Report” ?
Sorry, let me get this right… Israel releases video footage of a targeted mortar round into the courtyard of the UNRWA school and this apparently proves that the IDF didn’t target the UNRWA school?
It was “a single errant mortar” that was what? “Accidentally” aimed directly into the UNRWA school courtyard?
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said it was; “extremely unlikely” that anybody was killed by the mortar but that some children “might have been wounded”. Oh well that’s alright then, probably just a bit of light wounding, nothing to see here…
“The team observed a shrapnel field ranging from a few inches above the ground to the top of the main three-story school building, with the blast field extending down the corridor of the main school building.
The courtyard was marked by a single detonation point, which would be consistent with what the IDF video shows.
Security experts CNN consulted said the shallow point of detonation was consistent with a mortar round set to “airburst,” meaning it would explode a few feet above the ground to maximize enemy casualties.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/27/world/meast/mideast-crisis/index.html
If you knew anything about weapons then you would not jump to false conclusions.
Hamas combatants were adjacent to the complex firing RPG’s (Soviet made anti-tank weapons popular with terrorist movements). They were using the complex as cover (typical of cowards to hide behind civilians) knowing that Israeli forces would be hesitant to fire on them. Easiest way to flush out the enemy without visual direct line of site is to put some mortar rounds in. They are fired in vertical trajectories so you understand the weapon. These are not targeted weapons. They fire them in bracket clusters and initially need to find range accurately in a built up area. The possibility of shells landing short or long are good during ranging.
Hamas deliberately took up this position knowing the danger they were putting their own civilians in.
Understand the mindset of the Muslim; the casualties are “martyrs” and heroes to the cause. To the liberal Westerner they are tragic losses of human life. Its about culture and mindset.
You know nothing of weapons if you honestly believe a word of the above. Shame on you.
…please elaborate Tig, your reply – lacking in any detail of information – makes you look a bit dim.
People just don’t want to believe the truth when it is put in front of them This is because they have bombarded with propaganda against Israel for so long they cannot see the truth anymore. An example of this can be seen in Germany before and during WW2. Propaganda was so effective against Jews that people were convinced that Jews were traitors to Germany during the First World War, Despite the evidence staring them in the face in the many graveyards that showed that many Jews were decorated with medals and honoured for their bravery in the war. , they could not believe it .!!!
No counterfactual refutation, just ad hom. Oh dear Tig, your budding career as a troll is in tatters. By my reading TigerOC’s claims stand, and you just look shallow .You really must try harder. Couldn’t you find just one thing to refute? Obviously not. Trolls aren’t what they used to be.
Sorry, let me get this right… Dez has absolutely no concern over Hamas deliberately operating next to a UNRWA school but it’s all the Israelis’ fault when the school gets hit in the crossfire?
‘absolutely no concern over Hamas deliberately operating next to a UNRWA school’
Moral relativism #101 – Graduate with First Class Dishonours.
‘BBC Defender Dez in Defence of Hamas Shocker’.
Of course you ignore the but about the school being empty. Funny how Hamas gets the full benefit of the doubt while Israel is assumed guilty.
Mailman
Bet comment I read this week: “The IDF uses weapons to protect it’s people. Hamas uses people to protect its weapons”
Wasn’t there an incident earlier in the week where the IDF told Hamas it was going to target a hospital or school (I forget which) and told them to evacuate it and Hamas failed to pass it on so they could maximise the publicity of injured children?
Sick bastards.
I am hearing from Israel it is worse than Hamas failing to pass on messages to get out; Hamas are refusing to allow people to get out because their deaths create good anti-Israel hysteria.
That should have read ‘best comment’ of course. Finger trouble!
BBC News Channel this morning and in her harsh strident tones Lyse Doucet pleads the case for the Syrian children.
The style of her reporting is more of the charity appeal than an issue addressing news report. It is all about her own deeply concerned personality and the suffering kiddies in a fact- and context-light mix aimed at soliciting our emotional response. The typical modern BBC house-style. Sure, we feel that ‘something must be done’. But she encourages us to gloss over the real causes of conflict and barriers to peace and seems to leave the impression that this civil war is an act of God. In fact ,it is more of an act of Allah.
I thought the very same.
If only the BBC would do one long charity appeal for Arab children between 8am and 9am on Sunday mornings…pretty much the same thing as their current crop of “church services” and “Points of View from the likes of Will Self; in effect…then we could it all over with in one pro-Arab, Pro Muslim block of the schedule.
And-in return-actually reverted to news throughout the rest of the week, when they claim to be giving it to us….as things stand all we get is emoting under a PLO banner, while the BBC pray to Ariel for more dead Jews or Jews being exiled or threatened here in the so-called civilised West.
Al Jazeera give us more truth than the Jew baiting Streichers and Speers at the BBC.
The BBC could do with screening an appeal for Arab children – specifically the NON-MUSLIM Arab children who are suffering under the brutal rule of Hamas, Islamic State and other hard-line Muslim regimes in the Middle East .
Yolande Knell’s report from the Beit Hanoun school on Thursday showed no footage of physical damage to infrastructure, something that would be helpful in determining what happened. Everything appeared to have been rapidly cleared up, except for a few Pallywood photo-ops for the benefit of unquestioning western journos.
Does the BBC have any journalists who have served in the military in a conflict? It doesn’t seem so.
The BBC does not have any people- so it seems – who have any experience of life outside the liberal arts/quango/university mode.
So they emote and empathise. That is all they can do.
Favoured causes. Favoured minorities. Favoured views on economics/science/ etc
Above all a refusal to look at reality and to lookat -for instance- why the conflict between Hamas and Israel is so intractable and vicious.
Read the Hamas charter and you are in no doubt as to the end game for Hamas. Listen to Iran and you are in no doubt. Listen to any so called hard line Muslim apologist and you are in no doubt. Israel has no right to exist. The land of Israel is part of the Dar al Islam and must return. The doctrine is once a land is taken by Islam then Islamic it must be to the end of time.
The Jews? Who cares what happens to them.
Israel will be demonised to the end. It is the way of the liberal Westerner. Why? Emotion and hatred.
Student-union politics, think like your friends, no experience of anything except ngo-narcissism, work for the BBC and get paid for flaunting your prejudices. Shutting down the BBC is not only desirable financially, but a necessary rejection of medieval religious totalitarianism and its white middle-class BBC fellow-travellers.
Operation Protective Edge – The First 10 Days
The Iron Dome system tracks rockets that are fired from Gaza. The trajectory is tracked and some are shot down and the others allowed to fall in open space. The count is far more accurate that relying on the eyes of observers.
According to IDF figures for the first 10 days:
Over 1497 rocket were launched at Israel.
1093 of those rockets hit Israel
Approximately 301 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Do the maths. Around 103 missiles fell short. That’s almost 7%. There is no reason to believe the latest figures will be much different.
We are always being told that Gaza is densely populated (actually it has the density of the average medium-large city) so it is a reasonable guess that some of the Palestinian casualties are so-called ‘friendly fire’. Given that the Hamas fighters are mostly underground and no IDF style warning is given in the words of the BBC the vast majority of deaths will be civilian.
It should come as no surprise that an errant Hamas mortar was the culprit. That is modern warfare in an urban environment. BBC failure to acknowledge the high rate of missiles falling short and even speculate on casualties. That is incompetent, biased journalism.
Its about time someone mortared the BBC,give us all a rest.
I was reading somewhere (maybe here) about a cosy get-together by top BBC types (Greg Dyke being one) on how beastly it was/is being pressured by various Jewish/Israeli lobbies. One can see how empassioned advocacy can harsh one’s mellow.
Anyhoo… here’s a bit of balance:
BBC Breaking News @BBCBreaking
Blast killing at least 7 in a Gaza park caused by misfiring Hamas rocket – Israel Defense Forces tell BBC
http://bbc.in/1nRjeEr
Media Lens @medialens
@BBCBreaking Thanks, and what is Hamas saying? Or don’t we get to see that tweeted?
Guess the likes of Media Lens’ gentle joshing much less of an imposition.
There are, of course, the tweets in response too.
I’d advise our dear friends of the ‘we are watching’ variety not to head that way as fits of the vapours would be the least of the traumas to contend with.
Much better to lurk and watch and needle in areas less likely to spoil quaint little unidirectional note-taking bubbles from a position of safety.
The BBC reports make it imperative that the IDF change its targeting priorities.
First the journalists, then the terrorists.
It doesn’t look as if the IDF will do it but radio and television stations are considered to be legitimate military targets if used, as they are in Gaza, for military purposes. That includes psychological warfare, disinformation and just plain propaganda.
I have been overtaken by events.
Israeli air strike hits ‘Hamas media building’ in Gaza
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28538804
From Catch 22 to M*A*S*H onwards, the bizarre nature of ‘modern’ war has always bemused, but since the introduction of ‘right to know’ Pulitzer wannabees embedding selectively or making things up, the media component has made the whole thing surreal.
Looking at the frame capture above, one is impressed that the studios and broadcast systems seem capable of this still:
‘The television station continued to broadcast, however’
Guess the transmitter wasn’t on the roof of the honking great tower sticking out like a sore thumb?
Who the hell strolls into work in the middle of a war zone to such a structure? Even Paul Mason surely would not be dumb enough… oh… hang on..
I may also ponder the provenance of the un-named ‘reporter’ penning English such as this:
‘The night sky above Gaza City was light up with flares.’
The caption says there is no commentary on the video (currently not working). Maybe for the best.
“Hamas continues to kill their own people as their rockets fall within Gaza and beat them when they try to escape.”
http://pamelageller.com/2014/07/hamas-continues-kill-people-rockets-fall-within-gaza-beat-try-escape.html/