Reply #59: If yr going to insist on following me around replying to my posts, at least read what I say...

[Violet_Crumble]

What I said about not caring was that I don't care what term is used to describe things, as hyperbolic language is used on both sides, though I'm sure you'd deny it happens when it comes to Israel...

Anyone who tries to say with a straight face that Israel intentionally tries to avoid civilian casualties is either extremely dishonest or being plain silly. And what's really silly is when you get so obsessed with flinging around the 'demonisation' line that you extend it into being that anyone who doesn't agree with yr ignorant and extremely zealoted justification of what Israel does is demonising Israel....

Um, Israel also attacked Jenin from the skies, as well as raiding it. The IDF had an established habit of raiding and had done so to Jenin before.

Indiscriminate Helicopter Fire
Although missiles had been used from the beginning of the incursion, their use became particularly intense in the early morning hours of April 6. Testimony collected by Human Rights Watch indicates that many areas of the refugee camp were fired upon at that time, catching many sleeping civilians unaware. Many of the rockets used were U.S.-made wire-guided TOW missiles. The evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch suggests that many of the TOW missiles indiscriminately hit civilian homes and in at least one case a civilian was killed when she was struck by a helicopter missile. The number of solely civilian objects hit in the helicopter attacks the early morning of April 6 suggests that insufficient care was taken by Israeli forces to target only military objects. Due to the dense urban setting of the refugee camp, fighters and civilians were never at great distances. Nevertheless, such proximity does not provide a valid excuse by Israeli forces' action in firing upon the entire area as if it were a single military target.

Kamal Tawalba, a forty-three-year-old father of fourteen children, offered one of many compelling accounts that showed how IDF tanks and helicopters made little distinction between legitimate military targets and civilian homes. He told Human Rights Watch that he was alone with his family at his home on the morning of Saturday, April 6, and had harbored no Palestinian militants in his home: "There were no fighters in my house. I have fourteen children and would never have taken such a risk." The family was asleep on the bottom floor of their home when a tank shell hit the floor above them, setting the house on fire. He and his family tried to leave, but were prevented from doing so when IDF soldiers shot at them: "I went to the gate and started calling to the IDF soldiers to allow us to go out. I tried to ask for help-I held two children in my arms-but they started shooting at the windows."145 A few minutes later, two TOW-missiles hit the top floor of his home, causing more destruction: "After two minutes, two more missiles came to the house from an Apache helicopter. I can tell the difference because we could see the wires from the Apache helicopter . I took my small baby-there was so much dust-and I went outside without caring about the soldiers. A soldier started shooting at me and told me to put the children down. He took me in the street and told me to take off my clothes."146

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/israel0502-10.htm#P887_156446