UN: "Israel knew they were bombing a school"

UN: "Israel knew they were bombing a school"

John Ging, the head of the UN relief and works agency in Gaza, has said Israel were given the GPS and knew the building was a School. "There should be an imediate independent investigation into this"

At least 30 people have been killed in northern Gaza after two separate United Nations-run schools came under attack from Israeli forces.

What do you expect from a UN that criticizes Israel night and day and seldom says a word about the actions of Hamas?

If the UN wants credibility, they need to start playing it down the middle.

reply to post by setfree


Israel responded to Hamas fighters sending Rockets from a UN school and didn't hit the school, only near it. Hamas members were among the dead at the school, Israel is going to file a complaint about the UN allowing Hamas fighters to use their buildings to fire upon Israel from.

Israel response to the UN School incident

An inquiry into the incident revealed that the IDF soldiers acted according to procedures and fired back at gunmen firing mortar shells from the school. The investigation also revealed that Hamas launching cells were operating within the school. The shells landed outside the school yard.

[edit on 1/7/2009 by theindependentjournal]

Considering that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure - schools and hospitals - as military staging areas, then I'm sure Israel knew what they may potentially be hitting with their munitions - that being a HAMAS military staging area that is also used for other purposes.

Look, Israel says the UN was harbouring terrorists (or the UN school was). If this is true, why not get proof and show the whole world, it would certainly convince us that bat down the middle that the UN was breaking it's own rules. Israel did not because it was a manufactured lie.

[edit on 7/1/2009 by redled]

Both sides are EQUALLY to blame for this war going on. It really makes no sense for people to be taking sides on an online message board.

Fact of the matter is, warfare has changed. "Soldiers" fight in civilian clothes and launch attacks from civilian buildings and areas. Thus, innocent people are going to die. Thats just the way it goes.

I doubt Israel, the U.S., or any other one of the "bad guys", as most of you like to refer to them as, are intentionally trying to kill civilians. You need to protect your interests, and as brutal and insensitive as it sounds, that's going to include killing the innocent to kill the enemy.

Unless the world goes back to fighting battles as they were fought back in the days of Rome, hand to hand and on a predetermined battlefield, we're going to keep blowing up and killing anything in our ways.

And don't act like if the roles were reversed, and say Iran or another country had the means to extend their influence like the U.S., that they wouldn't.

Wolrd Peace is an ideal. It will NEVER happen. We are too greedy as humans and someone will always be looking for power.

Although I may not agree with every thing the U.S. does, I am proud to be an American, and I want my country to do everything necessary to keep us among the top countries in the world.

if hamas fighters were firing from a UN school, and there is proof of it, i would suggest that hamas were wrong. however, israel hasn't actually provided this proof.

at the moment, all we know for sure is that a UN school was hit and approx 40 civilians were killed. israel knew it was a UN school, they had the co-ordinates and there were big blue flags on the roof.

besides, if israel did nothing wrong they won't have any problem accounting for their actions, what's the issue with an investigation?

reply to post by pieman


I agree that their should be an investigation. Like you said, we really don't know what happened. However, since it was a UN school, the UN needs to remove itself from the investigation due to conflict of interest, wouldn't you agree?

Originally posted by pieman
if hamas fighters were firing from a UN school, and there is proof of it, i would suggest that hamas were wrong. however, israel hasn't actually provided this proof.

at the moment, all we know for sure is that a UN school was hit and approx 40 civilians were killed. israel knew it was a UN school, they had the co-ordinates and there were big blue flags on the roof.

besides, if israel did nothing wrong they won't have any problem accounting for their actions, what's the issue with an investigation?

It's worse than that. I know what I am about to say is outrageous but in war life does have a price. It would have been worth a few rockets being photographed coming from this school. The UN is supposed to be utterly impartial, and if it is taking sides then there should be resignations right to the top, and Israel has propoganda victory of the century. They're not stupid in Israel and would have sensed this, so methinks big lie.

reply to post by jam321


i would suggest the international criminal courts might be a suitable venue for an inquiry into the matter.

reply to post by redled


i suspect the israelis may well be being a little less than honest about the incident, the UN have stated they are 99.9% sure there were no hamas fighters in the school grounds and i find them a more credible source, but so long as israel is stopping anyone going into gaza, we can't know for sure.

[edit on 7/1/09 by pieman]

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

RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 5 (Reuters) - 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.

Rueters

So the school which the Hamas launched rocket attacks from has a terrorist rocket making headmasteer.

Here is another video of Hamas launching a rocket attack from an elementary school in Gaza.
www.youtube.com...

there are two examples of Hamas launching attacks from schools, it gives great proof that Hamas "DO" launch rocket attacks from schools.

reply to post by mrmonsoon


Whether the headmaster did indeed lead a double-life as a rocket technician it could lead to a dangerous precedent.

Now any Palestinian that has any educational background or technical qualification that could be stated as being able to be applied to weapons or infrastructure factoring could be classed as a legitimate target for arrest or
assault

edit to add:

Palestinian militants say...

I'm wary of such a statement unless it can be determined WHICH militants made that statement..

Fatah, also defined as a Palestinian militant organisation, have a very vested interest in the current conflict to eradicate Hamas




[edit on 7-1-2009 by citizen smith]

reply to post by pieman

i would suggest the international criminal courts might be a suitable venue for an inquiry into the matter.

Please, correct me if I am wrong

The International Criminal Court was established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, so called because it was adopted in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998 by the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. The Rome Statute is an international treaty, binding only on those States which formally express their consent to be bound by its provisions. These States then become “Parties” to the Statute.

From what I read, only States (countries) that signed on are bound by this court. Israel is not a member.

www.icc-cpi.int...

edited for source

[edit on 7-1-2009 by jam321]

Here is a video of Hamas using an ambulance to transport terrorist.

www.liveleak.com...
LiveLeak.com


Now that we see in two video's Hamas launching attacks from schools and using ambulances as terrorist troop carriers, the light of truth "may" begin to glow for some who just don't want to believe the truth.

Originally posted by citizen smith
reply to post by mrmonsoon

 

Whether the headmaster did indeed lead a double-life as a rocket technician it could lead to a dangerous precedent.

Now any Palestinian that has any educational background or technical qualification that could be stated as being able to be applied to weapons or infrastructure factoring could be classed as a legitimate target for arrest or assault

Terrorist rocket makers "ARE" a more than legitimate target in war.

The fact that the coward hides behind the UN and students only proves what a scumbag coward he is.

So typical of terrorists in Gaza.

Was it a UN ambulance? No, you are trying to fudge the issue and distort the truth. Did rockets come from a UN school? Did this double life geez ever bring his terrorism into that school? Was he so senior that it was worth killing 30 innocent kids to get him there, and since they were monitoring him, not his home? This all smacks of Zionist conspiracy. Israel should have held it's own internal investigations on this before condemning the UN, really.....

LOL

Like I posted, some people who don't want to know the truth won't believe it even when it is presented right to them.

The two video's of Gaza terrorists launching rocket/mortar attacks from schools is MORE than enough reasonable proof that Gaza terrorists DID launch attacks from a school.....again.

reply to post by jam321


i am aware that israel has chosen not to be bound by the international criminal court, i believe the US has opted out also. i didn't say it would be used, i said it would be an appropriate venue.

who would you suggest investigate the matter?

reply to post by mrmonsoon


according to your link, he's dead since april, so he clearly wasn't the headmaster when they shelled it!!!!

as for the video of the rockets being launched from the school, i don't see anything indicating that they are at the school, what makes you think they are?

on the live leak video, what's going on at between 20 and 25secs, looks well dodgy. then again, who knows, it might be legit!!