Israeli forces shell UN school where displaced Palestinians gathered, killing at least 9

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/displaced-palestinians-gathered.html

The Israeli military shelled a United Nations Relief Works and Agency (UNRWA) school today, killing and injuring some of the Palestinians who had gathered there after fleeing their homes following Israeli messages to do so. CNN‘s Ben Wedeman, who is reporting from Gaza, said that medical sources told him 30 people were killed. Other reports put the death toll lower; the Associated Press reports that at least seven were killed, while Agence France Press reports nine dead.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness has confirmed that there are “multiple dead and injured at designated UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun.” He said on Twitter that the Israeli military had been given “precise co-ordinates of the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun.”

The first reports came in on Twitter from Palestinians in Gaza, and were then confirmed by CNN’s Ben Wedeman, who is reporting from the coastal strip.

The most benevolent army in the world?

Bullshit.

This is terrorism in the same way that Israel claims that it suffers from it.

[4now]

1. I am sure that some apologist will explain to us why the slaughter of over 800 Palestinians

is not technically terrorism or apartheid or ethnic cleansing or genocide.

[azurnoir]

2. Sadly UNWRA finding and pubicly admiting to finding rockets in 2 VACANT schools is being used

to justify this, just as I suspected it be or as a wise person told me "I'd say you've seen this movie before"
there is an LBN thread about this some of the replies are ....well read it for yourself

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=854607

[bemildred]

3. Palestinians say they were waiting to evacuate when UN shelter was hit

It was supposed to be a place of refuge from a devastating war.

Hundreds of people were crammed into a United Nations-run elementary school in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday when the converted shelter was hit by a series of explosions. At least 15 people were killed and more than 120 injured, according to local health officials.

Survivors said they had packed their belongings and were gathered in the schoolyard awaiting evacuation when the shells hit. But the circumstances remained murky late in the day.

The deaths added urgency to the efforts of U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and others to negotiate a cease-fire in the nearly 3-week-old conflict, which has killed more than 800 people, the majority of them believed to be Palestinian civilians.

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-gaza-ceasefire-remains-elusive-20140724-story.html#page=1

[shira]

4. IDF Calls Out UN for Lying About Gaza Civilian Casualties

Israel is calling out a United Nations aid agency for falsely claiming that the Israeli Defense Forces did not permit civilians to evacuate a Gaza school where 15 people were killed today.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) laid blame for the civilian deaths on the IDF, claiming it never received approval from the IDF for an evacuation from the facility.

UNRWA—which has been under fire in recent days for allowing Hamas to use its facilities to store rockets—released a statement claiming: “UNRWA had been attempting to negotiate with the [IDF] a pause in the fighting during which they would guarantee a safe corridor to relocate staff and any displaced persons who chose to evacuate to a more secure location. Approval for that never came to UNRWA.”

Earlier, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness had similarly accused the IDF of preventing a civilian evacuation.

“Over the course of the day UNRWA tried 2 coodinate [sic] with the Israeli Army a window for civilians 2 leave & it was never granted,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness tweeted, following the strike.

However, in an unusual move late Thursday, multiple IDF sources rejected UNRWA’s claims and characterized them as outright falsehoods when reached by the Washington Free Beacon.

“For two days we were trying to move people out of that school in particular and the Beit Hanoun area in general,” said an IDF official who was involved in the interactions between the IDF, UNRWA, and International Red Cross (ICRC) leading up to the incident.

The official continued: “This morning we sought a cease-fire in the area and a humanitarian evacuation of civilians, but Hamas refused—because they wanted to keep civilians in the area to protect their fighters who were firing on the IDF,” the source said. The claim by Gunness and UNRWA that the IDF did not respond to their request to evacuate civilians, the source said, is “a flat-out complete and total lie.”

When asked for further details about the incident, UNRWA claimed that its school in Beit Hanoun had been turned into “a battlefield” in recent days.

Many Palestinians, including women and children, had sought shelter from the fighting in the school, believing it to be safe territory, according to UNRWA.

“This is the fourth time in the past four days that an UNRWA school has been struck by explosive projectiles,” UNRWA said.

An official IDF statement released to the Free Beacon states that “the IDF authorized a humanitarian time window for evacuation between 10:00-14:00 IDT earlier today. Hamas prevented the civilians from leaving it and once again used their infrastructure and international symbols as human shields. In the course of the afternoon, several rockets launched by Hamas from within the Gaza Strip landed in the Beit Hanoun area.”

“From initial inquiries done about the incident, during the intense fighting in the area, militants opened fire at IDF soldiers from the school area,” the statement says. “In order to eliminate the threat posed to their lives, they responded with fire toward the origins of the shooting.”

“The UNRWA claims that Israel prevented the safe evacuation of the school in Beit Hanoun are unfounded,” the statement concludes.

The source of the explosion is being investigated by the IDF.

“It should be emphasized that during recent days the [Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories] has been maintaining close contact with representatives of the UNRWA, the ICRC, and Palestinians in Beit Hanoun,” the statement concludes. “It should be further emphasized that following this contact, the humanitarian window was authorized.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/idf-calls-out-un-for-lying-about-gaza-civilian-casualties/

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

7. Sorry, shira. I believe that that which you have posted are unfounded.

[shira]

5. Hamas Misfired Rocket Hit UNRWA School where 17 Killed

UNRWA has admitted that a Hamas misfired rocket hit a U.N.-run school in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, according to Channel 2′s Ehud Ya’ari, but an errant IDF artillery shell also may have hit the facility, where Gaza sources claim an estimated 17 children and United Nations personnel were killed and 200 others were wounded Thursday afternoon.

Other sources have said the death toll is closer to 10.

Ya’ari also reported that one IDF shell struck the school, but this has not been verified.

The IDF spokesman remarked, and UNRWA confirmed, that misfired Hamas rockets fell and exploded in the area of the Beit Hanoun school. The IDF also reported there was significant combat in that area, where Hamas has used schools and hospitals as terror bases. The army shot artillery shells at Hamas targets, and one of the shells may have gone off course.

However, if even one of the explosions was a result of Hamas rockets, which seems to be the case, foreign media will have to throw up their hands in surrender to their constant attempt to show Israel as a mass murderer of innocent children.

Israel was immediately blamed for supposedly bombing the school, and UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness jumped all over the IDF for the tragedy.

Israel has made it clear that Hamas is responsible for any and all deaths.

cont'd…
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/hamas-may-have-fired-rockets-that-hit-unrwa-school-killing-17/2014/07/24/

[bemildred]

6. Five Israeli Talking Points on Gaza—Debunked

Israel has killed almost 800 Palestinians in the past twenty-one days in the Gaza Strip alone; its onslaught continues. The UN estimates that more than 74 percent of those killed are civilians. That is to be expected in a population of 1.8 million where the number of Hamas members is approximately 15,000. Israel does not deny that it killed those Palestinians using modern aerial technology and precise weaponry courtesy of the world’s only superpower. In fact, it does not even deny that they are civilians.

Israel’s propaganda machine, however, insists that these Palestinians wanted to die (“culture of martyrdom”), staged their own death (“telegenically dead”) or were the tragic victims of Hamas’s use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes (“human shielding”). In all instances, the military power is blaming the victims for their own deaths, accusing them of devaluing life and attributing this disregard to cultural bankruptcy. In effect, Israel—along with uncritical mainstream media that unquestionably accept this discourse—dehumanizes Palestinians, deprives them even of their victimhood and legitimizes egregious human rights and legal violations.

This is not the first time. The gruesome images of decapitated children’s bodies and stolen innocence on Gaza’s shores are a dreadful repeat of Israel’s assault on Gaza in November 2012 and winter 2008–09. Not only are the military tactics the same but so too are the public relations efforts and the faulty legal arguments that underpin the attacks. Mainstream media news anchors are inexplicably accepting these arguments as fact.

Below I address five of Israel’s recurring talking points. I hope this proves useful to newsmakers.

http://www.thenation.com/article/180783/five-israeli-talking-points-gaza-debunked#