War crime? IDF-Embedded Reporter Says IDF Fired Guided Missile at UNWRA School, Killing 15 Civilians
So many war crimes, so few prosecutions. But maybe war crimes are like torture committed during the Bush administration and simply demonstrate the deep patriotism of the perpetrators. Thus, rather than punish the war criminals, we should praise them.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/08/05/israeli-reporter-embedded-with-idf-says-it-fired-guided-missile-at-unwra-school/
IDF-Embedded Reporter Says It Fired Guided Missile at UNWRA School, Killing 15 Civilians
by RICHARD SILVERSTEIN on AUGUST 5, 2014
in MIDEAST PEACE
An Israeli reporter for Maariv, Aviram Zino, has been embedded with an IDF unit during the current invasion. Noam R writes in his Israeli political blog about Zino’s fawning enthusiastic response to being given the chance of a lifetime to be a reporter in the middle of the “action.” His reporting comes across as cheerleading rather than objective journalism. But in spite of himself, Zino reveals a damning fact that impeaches the IDF’s credibility regarding its denial of deliberately targeting UN buildings housing Palestinian civilian refugees.
Zino reports that the unit commander, Nadav, ordered the firing of a $100,000 Tamuz (aka Spike) heat-seeking anti-tank missile on a UNWRA school in Beit Hanoun on July 24th:
Nadav tried to clarify what means were available to him. A survey of the field shows clearly fire coming from an UNWRA school in the center of Gaza. The order is given and a Tammuz missile is fired at the school. The commanding general, who arrives later for a press conference, says in response: “This is yet another example of Hamas’ cynical use of civilian structures for the purposes of terror.”
It’s a bit aggravating since the unit tried from the beginning of the Operation to do minimal damage, as best as possible, to the “uninvolved” [military jargon for "civilians"].
15 Palestinian civilians died from this missile and 150 were injured. As Noam R points out in his blog post, this is the first eyewitness, definitive evidence that the IDF deliberately ordered a lethal guided-weapon (not indiscriminate artillery fire) to be fired at a civilian building in Gaza knowing there were unarmed non-combatants inside who would be killed.
Two things to point out about this report. Clearly, Zino didn’t see firing from the school. He trusted the unit commander’s word that such fire had been confirmed. But by whom and how is not mentioned. Second, the commander speaking at the press conference only notes the attack by the IDF on the school without explaining how it justified killing civilians. Zino, in the closing sentence, admits explicitly that the attack was both disproportional and knowingly attacked civilians. As Sara Lee Whitson says in the paragraph below: that “is a war crime.”
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