Palestinians: IDF surrounding mosque in Ramallah

[Gimel]

Israel Defense Forces troops raided the West Bank
city of Ramallah on Tuesday, encircled a mosque as
prayers were underway and searched the nearby
offices of a the Al Jazeera satellite television
station, Palestinian witnesses said.


Witnesses said troops surrounded Abdel Nasser
mosque in the center of Ramallah after imposing a
curfew, and fired warning shots and and tear gas to
disperse hundreds of stone-throwing youths. There
were no immediate reports of casualties.

IDF officials said the mosque was being used by
Hamas militants, and that troops were hunting
for one or more wanted Hamas men.

<snip>
Army Radio on Tuesday evening quoted military
sources as saying that seven of the 14
Palestinians killed in the air strikes were
positively identified as Hamas operatives. The
other casualties were believed to be
non-combatants.

According to video footage provided by the IDF,
the target areas were empty of bystanders at
the time of the air force raids. In the video -
filmed by a remote-controlled pilotless-plane
flying above Gaza and screened on Israeli
television news programs Tuesday evening -
viewers were unable to see any bystanders at
the time of the missile impacts.
<snip>
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/351965.html

The last two paragraphs above are in the second half of the article.

Yes, I saw the video. It is very clear.

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. It's Mosque Desecration Week. Crusaders did one in Iraq yesterday

Just a little pre-Ramadan fun.

I doubt that Israeli TV would train the cameras on the victims during a massacre.

Fortunately, since all Palestinian males old enough to walk have been decreed by the sharon regime to be "top Hamas leaders," it is pretty easy to get the footage craved by the sharon loyalists.

[Gimel]

2. Arial video from a drone

It was not the Israeli TV cameras, if you read the section more carefully you would see that.

There was no massacre.

The Mosque was surrounded, not desecrated. It was Al Jezeera that was harboring fugitives.

The remarkable thing is, that the streets were empty. No pedestrians visible. The video is remarkably clear.

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. Do you mean that the drones do not use cameras?

If so, I have no reason to dispute your claims.

The IDF is to be commended on the skill and dedication of its digital artists.

[liberalhistorian]

9. Not just those old enough to walk, but even

babies. I recently read an Alternet article written by an American woman married to a Palestinian, they live in San Francisco. Their son was born this summer and when he was six weeks old they took him to the West Bank so that her husband's family could see him. They all had passports. Her husband, remember, is married to an AMERICAN citizen. When it was time to leave, however, Israel would not allow her husband and her EIGHT-WEEK-OLD SON to return home with her. They were automatically deemed a "threat" simply because of their ethnicity, never mind that they were Americans and that the father hadn't even lived there for years. Guess they figure that Palestinian boys start their machine-gun training at two months old.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

3. Yes, the video is very clear...

just like this one:



I mean it is clear from this footage that spiderman is clinging to the side of a very tall skyscraper, and there is no reason to doubt this version of events.

But wait!

The IDF claims the area was clear of bystanders, so who were the other 7 killed?:

Army Radio on Tuesday evening quoted military
sources as saying that seven of the 14
Palestinians killed in the air strikes were
positively identified as Hamas operatives.

I guess they must be INVISIBLE bystanders...

[Gimel]

4. Yeah, like the words in the article

seven of the 14 Palestinians killed in the air strikes

Here you see the air strikes is plural. If you read the threads about them, you would know that there were four strikes. The video was of one strike. Of course, there was no Spiderman in them, not even an IDF drone.

[bluesoul]

5. Reality

But their were 7 civilians killed..

[Gimel]

7. Yes, in other strikes. eom

[Equinox]

8. So then what was your point?

n/t

[Gimel]

11. The video shows

...the strikes were made when there were no crowds on the streets, which is contrary to Palestinian claims. That is the point made in the article.

[Aidoneus]

10. only 16 reported injuries so far

They're never going to top yesterday's part of Operation Fill Those Hospitals and Morgues at this rate.

[Aidoneus]

12. one death reported now

Reuters earlier said 16 reported injured, al-Jazeera now using its own reporters and wire agencies mentions 1 death and 8 injured.

Haaretz says 7 were injured after firing on people gathered in protest (rockthrowers, assumably) to IDF surrounding the mosque, but IDF press people deny using any live ammo.

slow day, perhaps it's that continuing dock strike that's keeping Sharon's people busy, but then it didn't stop them yesterday. :shrug:

[Darranar]

13. I think the video could be a fraud...

it wouldn't be the first time propaganda was made up to support a claim.

But any number of videos can't dispute the fact that several innocent people were killed in these raids, whether those two sepcifically or not. It seems to have been rather sloppy work done by the IDF, if not malicious.

[DuctapeFatwa]

16. LOL My favorite was the little white baby in the bomb belt

If ever a disinfo nugget had "overzealous and underskilled youngupandcomer out to impress the boss," that was it!

It was especially delicious since everybody but, apparently, that one new hire, knows that all the pics of real Palestinian kids in bomb belts you can eat are a google away!

[Aidoneus]

14. technically speaking, this disproves nothing

This other bit may have been added on edits (Haaretz adds more things to articles long after they're originally put up), but leaves an open end to things.

"We didn't see any massive gathering of people.
We will not allow munitions to be launched when
there is a massive gathering of people," said a
senior air force officer, speaking on condition
of anonymity.

The grainy video showed a crowd gathering around
the car about two minutes after the second
strike, and the video ended some 40 seconds
later. The military said an additional 10
minutes were recorded but didn't release the
additional footage.

The claim, as presented by reporters and corraborated by witnesses, is that the missile hit the crowd AFTER the truck was hit. This doesn't address that claim at all.

[Darranar]

15. Hmm...

The military said an additional 10
minutes were recorded but didn't release the
additional footage.

The more I think about it, the more right you seem...