IDF shell kills 30 in Gaza UN school; Israel mulls appeal over Hamas fire from UN facilities

[oberliner]

Israel is considering submitting a complaint to the United Nations of Hamas' use of the world body's facilities for terror purposes, after 30 people were killed when an Israeli army artillery shell struck a UN school in Gaza. Israeli troops say that they were fired on from the building.

The Israel Defense Forces soldiers attacked the UN-run girl's school near the Jabalya refugee camp in self-defense, saying militants barricaded inside began firing mortar rounds at them.

"Initial checks ... show that from inside the school mortars were fired at Israeli forces," an IDF spokesman said. "In response, the forces fired a number of mortar rounds into the area."

The army also said that the bodies of Hamas militants were found inside the school following the attack. Troops identified two of the casualties at the site as Imad and Hassan Abu Askhar, who served as heads of the Hamas mortar units in Gaza.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053233.html

[BunkerHill24]

1. Bullshit!

[Howardx]

2. israel absolves itself again

no surprise there.

[tekisui]

3. If Israel would allow reporters into Gaza, their arguments wouldn't be so

suspect.

[oberliner]

4. Israel may file complaint over Hamas' use of schools

IDF and intelligence sources said that Hamas was attempting to hide the circumstances of the incident. Members of the organization were also killed in the strike.

The army released a video showing the terrorists firing mortar shells from the school yard, and the cabinet is considering using the video in a possible complaint filed with the UN.


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3651804,00.html

[Arctic Dave]

7. If they can take pictures with the drones why don't they use them to kill

the mortar team and not use indiscriminate tank rounds? That is about as dumb as firing unguided rockets into a city.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. Not all UAVs are armed and I have read is was mortar rounds not

tank shells. Then again, there is a lot of confused reporting on the details

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HeraldSquare212]

6. The local UN official at the complex said they vetted refugees and no militants entered.

The article is posted elsewhere on DU, I don't have time to go find it again.

[Hydra]

8. Ironies abound

They commit a war crime, and then complain to the UN about them allowing their school to be used as a base(That was not likely there).

[Arrowhead2k1]

9. For some reason, I can't trust the bullshit Israelis shovel anymore...

[oberliner]

10. Residents confirmed the account

saying militants were seen staging attacks from the area.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090106/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

[peacebird]

11. "the bodies of Hamas militants were found inside the school" - all dead men are Hamas obviously

Just like all the dead in Iraq were militants, even toddlers....
:sarcasm:
Israel has learned well from Bush.

[ohio2007]

12. Exclusive: By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations sc

EXCLUSIVE-Gaza headmaster was Islamic Jihad "rocket-maker"

By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. By night, Palestinian militants say, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.
The Israeli air strike that killed the 33-year-old last week also laid bare his apparent double life and embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state.

In interviews with Reuters, students and colleagues, as well as U.N. officials, denied any knowledge of Qiq's work with explosives. And his family denied he had any militant links at all, despite a profusion of Islamic Jihad posters at his home.

But militant leaders allied to the enclave's ruling Hamas group hailed him as a martyr who led Islamic Jihad's "engineering unit" -- its bomb makers. They fired a salvo of improvised rockets into Israel in response to his death.


snip

Relatives recalled with pride that Qiq had met John Ging, UNRWA's Gaza operations director. But while fellow teachers had come to pay their respects, they saw no U.N. representative.

Qiq's sister said his wife and five children were worried by the lack of news on any pension payment: "Awad did a lot for UNRWA," she said. "The family hoped UNRWA would support them." (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Samia Nakhoul)

http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL05686115

rocket science and political science don't mix all the time