The mainstream media such as AP is having a field day reporting today’s deaths of 7 palestinians, including children.
Israeli strike kills 7 Palestinians
An Israeli tank shell slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home Monday during a skirmish with gunmen, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they prepared to sit down for breakfast, officials and relatives said.
The new violence threatened to hobble Egyptian attempts to bring a cease-fire to the area.
A militant and an unidentified man were also killed in fighting in Beit Hanoun, a northern Gaza border town Palestinian militants frequently use to fire rockets and mortars at southern Israel.
Palestinian medics identified the dead children as sisters Rudina and Hana Abu Meatak, ages 6 and 3; and their brothers 4-year-old Saleh and 15-month-old Mousad. Their mother, Miyasar, was in her late 30s. Her two older children were critically wounded in the strike, the officials said.
The Israeli military said forces entered the town early Monday after gunmen approached a border patrol. During ensuing clashes between gunmen and Israeli forces, tank shells were fired, and one struck the Abu Meatak home.
The force of the blast scattered clothes and other household items outside the two-room home. A single white children’s shoe, flattened by the explosion, lay on the ground near a blue pair of shorts covered in sand. A green baby chair also sat outside, one end bent by the force of the blast.
A large crowd of people gathered outside, milling about as rescue crews cleaned up the debris and washed away bloodstains in the sand.
“What a black day. They killed my family,” said Ahmad Abu Meatak, father of the children, wailing outside the local hospital where the bodies were taken. Abu Meatak, dressed in a traditional Arab white robe and headcovering, said he was on his way to a nearby market to shop when the tank shell hit.
Beit Hanoun farmer Omar Abdel Nabi said he was driving his tractor in a nearby field when two or three explosions shook the ground.
“People were screaming that a tank shell landed in the next street,” he told The Associated Press. “I carried two people covered in blood out of a house.”
The children were taken to a local hospital morgue, where family members stood over the bodies, wailing and flailing their hands in the air.
“I feel sick. I want to throw up the blood that is boiling inside me, into the face of the occupation,” said Ibrahim Abu Meatak, the children’s 24-year-old half-brother. He said Miyasar Meatak was fixing breakfast for the family when the tank shell struck.
Israeli officials said they were investigating the incident, but made clear that they held Gaza’s Hamas rulers responsible for the bloodshed. Israel says Hamas permits militants to carry out attacks from residential areas, putting civilians at risk when Israel strikes back.
“We see Hamas as responsible for everything that happens there, for all injuries,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said during a tour of an Israeli weapons factory. “The army is acting, and will continue to act, against Hamas, including inside the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also responsible, by way of its activity within the civilian population, for part of the casualties among uninvolved civilians.”
The Israeli army frequently operates in the Gaza Strip against Palestinian militants, who have fired thousands of rockets into southern Israel since the Hamas militant group took control of Gaza last June. Militants claimed to have fired rockets at Israel before the Abu Meatak house was hit.
And of course the Foreign Press photographers are there to publish gruesome photos like this to expedite Israel’s conviction in the court of public opinion.
What I am not seeing in the mainstream media is this version reported in the Jerusalem Post (hat tip: Shy Guy):
The Palestinian mother and her four children who were killed Monday during IDF ops in Beit Hanun were not hit by a tank shell but rather were killed when ammunition carried by gunmen exploded, Army Radio quoted an IDF source as saying.
According to the unofficial source, the forces operating in the Gaza Strip town identified two gunmen who were carrying large bags. When the soldiers opened fire on them the bags exploded, causing the deaths of the family members.
While this does not constitute proof regarding who killed the palestinians, it certainly provides an alternative explanation worthy of investigation. And given there is doubt regarding how they were killed, the mainstream media should not be reporting their death at the hands of Israel as fact (even if they are including the important IDF explanation that Hamas terrorists are putting civilians at risk by carrying out attacks from residential areas).
Elder of Ziyon adds: As a followup to Aussie Dave’s mentioning the Jerusalem Post’s cautious tone about the source of the fire that killed the Gaza family this morning…
First of all, Beit Hanoun has been the site of numerous Qassam rockets falling short of their targets, and they have damaged many houses and killed people as well.Secondly, Israel did target and kill two terrorists 400 meters from the family home. While sometimes Israel makes mistakes and misses its targets (as apparently happened with the Reuters photographer) this is a pretty wide miss, especially in a populated area where Israel is much more careful.
More interesting is the fact that there were many mortars and rockets shot today from Gaza towards Israel.
Most intriguing is this paragraph from a Ma’an dispatch (that is missing some words in the beginning):
Palestinian fighters unleash barrage of projectiles and mortars at Israeli targets
responsibility on Monday afternoon for launching five homemade projectiles and three mortar shells at the Israeli towns of Sderot and Netiv Ha’asara and at Israeli forces invading Beit Hanoun.
Separately, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (PFLP) military wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, said their fighters fired four homemade projectiles at Sderot. They also said they shot and injured an Israeli soldier.
Moreover, the PFLP’s and Fatah’s military wings said their fighters fired mortar shells at Israeli military vehicles in the northern Gaza Strip.
For their part, Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, claimed responsibility for firing five mortar shells at Israeli military vehicles in the northern Gaza Strip.
At least four terror groups are claiming responsibility for shooting rockets and mortars in the northern Gaza Strip- which is exactly where Beit Hanoun is.
Right now, the only people claiming that this was an Israeli strike are Palestinian Arabs who are known to automatically blame Israel even when they are being killed by their own fire.
At the very least, it would seem premature to assume that this was Israel’s fault at all.
Update: AP has now made changes to the headline, as well as the report itself.
4 Palestinian children, mother killed in attack in Gaza
An Israeli tank shell slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home Monday during a skirmish with gunmen, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they prepared to sit down for breakfast, Palestinian officials and relatives said.
But the Israeli military said explosives carried by militants were detonated in a clash with the Israelis and “and uninvolved civilians were hit.” Palestinians said the militants were at least 400 yards from the stricken house.
Reuters, however, is still reporting that Israel killed the children.
