Reuters
http://wire.antiwar.com/ 2009/01/06/ up-to-40-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-gaza-school- medics-2/
Januray 6, 2009
GAZA – Israeli tank fire killed up to 40 Palestinians at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medical sources at two Gaza hospitals said.
Two tank shells exploded outside the school, residents said, spraying shrapnel on people inside and outside the building, where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge from fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants.
Reuters journalists filmed bodies scattered on the ground amid pools of blood and torn shoes and clothes. A donkey also lay on the ground in its own blood.
In addition to the dead, several dozen people were wounded, the hospital officials said.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
Doctors said all the dead were either people sheltering in the school or residents of Jabalya refugee camp, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
A separate Israeli air strike near another U.N. school earlier on Tuesday killed three Palestinians, medics and witnesses said.
2 Comments so far
Leave a comment
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
This is a very sad report. The palestinian population is really caught between Hamas and the Israeli operation, with the former doing everything to prevent any peace and security to it’s own people.
It is very difficult to prevent this when fighting with terrorists in a densly populated area, yet everything should be done to prevent it. I know from my friends that many operations were cancelled due to presence of civilian population around the target. Yet mistakes are made.
This will only be resolved when the world pressures Hamas to stop launcing attacks within it’s own population. They have now nothing to loose: If Israel does no retaliate, they are better off. If Israel does retaliate, civilians get hurt, and Israel is criticized and forced to a truce – they are better of again.
A small metaphor. A terrorist enters a mall and catches innocent hostages. He continues to shoot at other innocent people and turns down the prospect of negotiation. The police is expected to act, it’s liable to arrest or kill the terrorist.
Even if some of the hostages are hurt by police fire, the SWAT officers cannot be put to blame. Perhaps they could have performed better. But the blame for the incident, the lives lost, is still on the terrorist.
The hostages are the civilians of Gaza. They have done nothing wrong. The people shot at are the 1 million civilians in southern Israel.
Comment by Roman January 6, 2009 @ 9:31 pmThe terrorist is the Hamas.
While Israel did not retaliate to “free the hostages”, it did so to prevent Hamas to shooting missiles at Israeli cities, a practice which we suffer in the last 8 years.
Dear Roman,
My fibro is acting up. I need to get off the computer now, but I will comment later.
I agree with a lot of your comment.
Best Wishes
Comment by chrisy58 January 7, 2009 @ 4:05 pmChrisy