Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumExplosive: UN admits Palestinians fired rockets from UNRWA schools
http://blog.unwatch.org/index.php/2015/04/27/confirmed-un-admits-palestinians-stored-rockets-in-unrwa-schools-and-highly-likely-used-school-premises-to-launch-attacks/The UN finally investigated the Palestinian storing of rockets in UNRWA schools and their use of the schools to launch rockets against Israel, all of which constitute grave violations of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.
Key findings gleaned from the UN report:
Hamas and/or Islamic Jihad stored rockets in UNRWA schools. The board found, in the case of the UNRWA Jabalia Elementary “C” and Ayyobiya Boys School, referring to the discovery of weapons there on 22 July 2014, that “it was highly likely that a Palestinian armed group might have used the premises to hide weapons.”
Hamas and/or Islamic Jihad stored rockets in schools that were in active use by children. During the war, former PLO lawyer Diana Buttu famously said on Al Jazeera that “the rockets that were found in the schools in UNRWA were schools that are not being used by anybody—school is out, I’ll have you know.” However, in the UNRWA Gaza Beach Elementary Co-educational “B” School, on 16 July 2014, the UN Board of Inquiry notes that the school gate was unlocked during the period leading up to the incident “in order to allow children access to the schoolyard.” School was out, but UNRWA was inviting the children back in to play.
Hamas and/or Islamic Jihad fired rockets from UNRWA schools. In the Jabalia school listed above, the board found that “it was highly likely that an unidentified Palestinian armed group could have used the school premises to launch attacks on or around 14 July.” Similarly, concerning weaponry stored at the UNRWA Nuseirat Preparatory Co- educational “B” School, the UN inquiry found that “the premises could have been used for an unknown period of time by members of a Palestinian armed group” — and that “it was likely that such a group may have fired the mortar from within the premises of the school.”
Extracts follow below.
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Very Orange
(31 posts)Now it's time for the UN to demand an explanation from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
shira
(30,109 posts)Inside a Gaza Strip mosque in January 2009, nothing at first seemed unusual with the wooden pulpit pushed against the cement wall. Barely taller than a man, it stood beside a microphone stand near an electric fan and some plastic chairs, according to photographs captured by the Israel Defense Forces.
But hidden inside the pulpit, Israel alleged, were a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a bulletproof vest and binoculars. Soldiers soon spread the mosque’s cache on the floor, a haul that included a rifle, grenades and ammunition. Hamas operatives, Israel charged, were to blame.
“The many mosques in the Gaza Strip serve not only religious functions, but are also put to military use by Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said at the time. “They are used to hide terrorist operatives, store weapons, as sites from which rockets and mortar shells are launched.”
To many observers, one of the most troublesome facts of the Gaza Strip conflict — which has killed around 1,340 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and 56 Israeli soldiers — has been Israel’s apparent willingness to strike civilian institutions such as mosques, schools and hospitals. On Wednesday, following a strike on a school while its inhabitants slept, killing 20 people and wounding dozens more, a United Nations official said Israel had violated international law. “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the serious violation of international law by Israel forces, said U.N. official Pierre Krähenbühl. “This is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.”
Israeli military officials, for their part, say the reality of the strikes is substantially more complicated and claim Hamas’s maintenance of military operations inside civilian institutions precipitate such attacks.
“Hamas chooses to use these protected areas for military purposes in order to shield itself from IDF strikes,” the Israel Defense Forces said this week. “And to draw international condemnation of Israel if the IDF is forced to respond.”
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/31/why-hamas-stores-its-weapons-inside-hospitals-mosques-and-schools/
aranthus
(3,385 posts)How could this have happened and the UN not know about it?
shira
(30,109 posts)...control the educational curriculum, etc.
As if Hamas represents peaceful UN interests.
Two possible answers to your question:
a) Hamas really does represent the UN's interests and wants what's worst for Israel. The UN's pathological obsession with Israel as opposed to every other country demonstrates this hostility.
b) Hamas doesn't represent UN's interests but the UN pretends all their facilities are run by responsible folks working for the UN.
May be a little of both.
Israeli
(4,148 posts)shira
(30,109 posts)If a UN inquiry finds that Hamas really did shield its military operations purposely within civilian areas, using kids as human shields, etc. they'd be forced to conclude Hamas committed war crimes and that Israel isn't as responsible or evil as its haters say it is.
If they can't do that, it proves (like proof is really needed) that they're little more than mouthpieces for Hamas. Whether voluntarily or involuntarily (opposing Hamas in Gaza could be very costly).
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)Bibi the baby killer is responsible for lots of dead Palestinians...
Dots connected, shira.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)from DU if it weren't for Shira. There was nothing but doubt and derision for anyone not in the Israel sucks brigade when Israel made this claim about the hospital.
