Friday, January 09, 2009

Israelis admit militants not in UN school- any surprises?



By Rory McCarthy (The Guardian, Thursday 8 January 2009) 

The UN said last night that the Israeli military had privately admitted that the shelling of a UN school in Jabaliya which killed more than 40 Palestinians on Tuesday was in response to militant fire from outside, not inside, the UN compound.

After the attack, the Israeli military said an initial inquiry had shown that several mortar shells had been fired at Israeli forces "from within the Jabaliya school" and that Israeli forces had returned fire. 

However, a UN spokesman yesterday said the military had admitted that this account was no longer accurate. "In private briefings with diplomats the Israeli army has admitted that the militant fire from Jabaliya did not come from within a UN compound but outside and therefore allegations that this fire came from inside our compound are completely baseless," said Chris Gunness, spokesman for UNWRA. 

Last night, the Israel Defence Force, stood by its initial account."The source of the fire was from within the school compound and that we returned fire and we have intelligence information that we hit the actual mortar firing squad that was firing at us," said Captain Benjamin Rutland, an Israeli military spokesman.

Earlier yesterday, John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for UNRWA, visited the school himself."I am very confident now that there was no militant activity inside the school nor militants in the school. If anybody has evidence to the contrary, then let's bring it forward."

I wonder whether this news would ever make it to the western media (atleast most it) let alone be flashed as "Breaking News". Oh, no, they have other important news like celebrating a dead man's birthday! I just hope and pray that the Palestinian voices are not supressed and the real truth reaches the world. 



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