Out of #Gaza far from #Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris
— gabrielebarbati (@gabrielebarbati) July 29, 2014
This will be a big story. It’s a tweet from Gabriele Barbati, an Italian reporter in the Middle East.
He has now left Gaza. Accordingly he can actually be a reporter instead of a hostage. He backs the IDF Spokesperson’s account of what happened at Shifa Hospital in Al-Shati and reports that terrorists rushed in and “cleaned up”.
He also backed up the IDF’s version completely:
@IDFSpokesperson said truth in communique released yesterday about Shati camp massacre. It was not #Israel behind it
— gabrielebarbati (@gabrielebarbati) July 29, 2014
This is his tweet leaving Gaza a little earlier:
Out of #gaza On way back In Erez finally saw #israel #idf tanks and bulldozer pic.twitter.com/0xEZOtF73b
— gabrielebarbati (@gabrielebarbati) July 29, 2014
Aussie Dave adds: i was actually working on a post on this same topic, which Brian did not see when he posted this. So I will just add some further comments I had in my post (now flushed down the memory hole).
Yesterday, Gaza’s Shifa Hospital and Al-Shati Refugee Camp were hit by missiles, killing at least 10 with dozens wounded. At the time, the IDF was quick to point the finger at Hamas.
“A short while ago Al-Shifa hospital was struck by a failed rocket attack launched by Gaza terror organizations. A barrage of three rockets that were aimed towards Israel, struck the hospital. At the time of the incident there was no Israeli military activity in the area surrounding the hospital whatsoever. “
Gaza terrorists fired rockets today, hoping to kill Israelis. Instead, they hit a hospital & a refugee camp in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/dXNhtCHTQc
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 28, 2014
Hamas, naturally, blamed Israel, with some help from palestinian “eyewitnesses.”
Ten people were killed in the attack, including eight children, and forty were injured, thirty-two of them children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel claimed a misfired militant rocket caused the carnage, but several eyewitnesses blamed the explosion on an airstrike.
Most of the media reported this as he said/she said – although some initially blamed Israel, before amending their headlines – with the IDF and Hamas claims both mentioned. But now, we have some independent verification of the IDF version, coming from Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati, as Brian mentioned above. It is important to note he can hardly be accused of being a Zionist shill.
Aussie Dave adds again: Another journalist had apparently blamed Hamas, before removing his tweet.
If you want to understand how Hamas intimidates the media, read these two tweets by WSJ journalists—who deleted them: pic.twitter.com/frynIt2IRi
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) July 28, 2014
I deleted an earlier tweet because it was speculative. Re-posted without speculation. No conspiracy. Thanks.
— Tamer El-Ghobashy (@TamerELG) July 28, 2014