Blast in Gaza wounds 24 Palestinians

[oberliner]

(Reuters) - An explosion in the house of a Hamas commander in the Gaza Strip has wounded 24 people, a Hamas official and medical workers in the Palestinian territory said on Monday.

Hamas blamed Israel for the explosion, which it said targeted field commander Alaa al-Danaf. The Israeli military, through an army spokeswoman, denied any involvement.

Medical workers said the blast had wounded 24 people inside and outside al-Danaf's house. It was unclear if he was killed in the blast, which occurred at a time of renewed cross-border violence between militants and the Israeli army.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67009H20100801

[shira]

1. "Refugee camp residents begged Islamists to move weapons store."

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=183846

Waiting for demonization of Hamas to begin for deliberately putting Palestinian civilian lives in danger....

Anytime now...

:eyes:

Maybe this is the 'evidence' HRW and Amnesty Int'l has been looking for WRT Hamas using the Palestinian population as a human shield. Maybe this time, these great HR organizations that care so much for Palestinians will speak up on behalf of these Arab civilians recklessly endangered by Hamas.

Waiting....

I'm sure they're right on top of this!

:shrug:

[azurnoir]

2. The proof that Hamas was operating in residential areas was in the Goldstone Report

from JPosts source TheMediaLine

Justin Alexander, a Middle East analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, said that the lack of space in the Gaza Strip, coupled with Israel’s monitoring of open agricultural areas, accounts for armed factions’ operations within residential areas.

"There aren't many non-residential areas in Gaza," he told The Media Line.

The United Nations Fact Finding Mission led by Judge Richard Goldstone found that Palestinian armed groups in Gaza had launched rockets from within urban areas during its war with Israel, which ended in early 2009.

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=29618

[shira]

3. That's whitewashing Hamas' criminal use of human shields

Hamas had 'no choice' but to do as they did.

They couldn't help it.

Therefore no war crimes are committed.

:eyes:

Reminds me of the part in the Goldstone Report about militants mixing in with civilians dressed in civilian attire, but not for the purposes of shielding themselves. Well, for what other reason could there be? Maybe they all left their military fatigues at the dry cleaners?

[azurnoir]

4. can you please link to the part of the actual report that says that?

and no not a claim that it says that the actual report

[shira]

5. paragraph 478

478. Reports on the military operations by NGOs suggest that in general members of Palestinian armed groups did not wear military uniforms. One report states that after the destruction caused by the Israeli air strikes at the start of the military operations, members of al-Qassam Brigades abandoned military dress and patrolled streets “in civilian clothes”. A second report states that members of the Palestinian armed groups “also mixed with the civilian population, although this would be difficult to avoid in the small and overcrowded Gaza Strip, and there is no evidence that they did so with the intent of shielding themselves”.

[azurnoir]

6. where is the link? does this justify IDF killing civilians? n/t

[oberliner]

7. Here is a link to the Goldstone report

The PDF can be found here:

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/FactFindingMission.htm

[azurnoir]

8. thanks n from myself and shira I am sure ETA is your PDF

numbered by paragraph? or am I to wade through to prove or disprove shira contention or should we just take her good word for it?

[shira]

10. First, it's a horseshit excuse to whitewash Hamas crimes against Palestinians, right? N/T

[azurnoir]

12. so you claim n/t

[shira]

13. That's the reason you asked for the quote and link. You realize it's BS too. N/T

[azurnoir]

14. the link that you could not provide is to the entire 500+ page report

can you provide the exact page? am I to wade through how many pages or just take your good word for an alleged passage that IMO proves nothing of your own original claim?

[shira]

15. Page 146, again paragraph #478 with this link...

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf

[azurnoir]

9. Aren't Amnesty and HRW NGO's? n/t

[shira]

11. Yep, and they also say there's no evidence that a lack of uniforms = deliberate human shielding.

They too must have thought that all military uniforms were at the dry cleaners during OCL, and that if they had the chance Hamas, etc. would have certainly distinguished themselves from civilians during combat.

:eyes:

[azurnoir]

16. Here is the full statement from the link provided by Oberliner

478. Although the Mission finds this statement morally repugnant, it does not consider it to
constitute evidence that Hamas forced Palestinian civilians to shield military objectives against
attack. The Government of Israel has not identified any such cases.
F. Mingling with the civilian population to shield combatants against attack
479. When military operations take place in areas in which civilians are present, the importance
of military dress and distinctive signs to distinguish combatants from civilians is all the greater.
The Mission notes that only one of the incidents it investigated clearly involved the presence of
Palestinian combatants. In that incident, the witness told the Mission that three fighters trapped
in his neighbour’s house were “wearing military camouflage and headbands of the al-Qassam
Brigades”.335
480. Reports on the military operations by NGOs suggest that in general members of
Palestinian armed groups did not wear military uniforms. One report states that after the
destruction caused by the Israeli air strikes at the start of the military operations, members of al-
Qassam Brigades abandoned military dress and patrolled streets “in civilian clothes”.336 A
second report states that members of the Palestinian armed groups “also mixed with the civilian
population, although this would be difficult to avoid in the small and overcrowded Gaza Strip,
and there is no evidence that they did so with the intent of shielding themselves”.337
481. Finally, on this issue, it is relevant to mention that the Israeli Government has produced
no visual or other evidence to support its allegation that Palestinian combatants “mingle
routinely with civilians in order to cover their movements”.338
G. Factual findings
482. On the basis of the information it gathered, the Mission finds that there are indications that
Palestinian armed groups launched rockets from urban areas. The Mission has not been able to
obtain any direct evidence that this was done with the specific intent of shielding the rocket
launchers from counterstrokes by the Israeli armed forces. The Mission also notes, however, that
Palestinian armed groups do not appear to have given Gaza residents sufficient warning of their
intention to launch rockets from their neighbourhoods to allow them to leave and protect
themselves against Israeli strikes at the rocket launching sites. The Mission notes that, in any
event, given the densely populated character of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, once Israeli
forces gained control of the more open or outlying areas during the first days of the ground
invasion, most -- if not all -- locations still accessible to Palestinian armed groups were in urban
areas.
483. The Mission finds that the presence of Palestinian armed fighters in urban residential
areas during the military operations is established. On the basis of the information it gathered,
the Mission is unable to form an opinion on the exact nature or the intensity of their combat
activities in urban residential areas that would have placed the civilian population and civilian
objects at risk of attack. While reports reviewed by the Mission credibly indicate that members
of Palestinian armed groups were not always dressed in a way that distinguished them from
civilians, the Mission found no evidence that Palestinian combatants mingled with the civilian
population with the intention of shielding themselves from attack.339
484. From the information it gathered, the Mission does not discount the use of booby traps by
the Palestinian armed groups. The Mission has no basis to conclude that civilian lives were put at
risk, since none of the reports records the presence of civilians in or near the houses that were
allegedly booby-trapped.