40 Killed While Sheltering In UN School in Gaza
The NY Times is saying there are unconfirmed deaths at a UN school in Gaza. The Independent, U.K. is confirming it:
Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians today at a UN school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international calls for a halt to Israel’s Gaza offensive.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was looking into information on the incident at al-Fakhora school in Jabalya refugee camp.
People cut down by shrapnel lay in pools of blood on the street. Witnesses said two Israeli tanks shells exploded outside the school, killing at least 40 civilians – Palestinians who had taken refuge there and residents of nearby buildings.
MSNBC confirms it, with photos.
The UN, which said the school was clearly marked, said it was “strongly protesting these killings to the Israeli authorities and is calling for an immediate and impartial investigation”.
“Where it is found that international humanitarian law has been violated, those responsible must be held to account. Under international law, installations such as schools, health centres and UN facilities should be protected from attack. Well before the current fighting, the UN had given to the Israeli authorities the GPS co-ordinates of all its installations in Gaza, including Asma elementary school.”
What else is this to be called but Terrorism?
3 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Comment Guidlines: This space is for commenting on the post above, the ideas, the context,the author. Your ideas, strong but civil, are appreciated. Long cuts and pastes from elsewhere are not. This is NOT the place to create your own private BLOG. Links to other articles are fine, if appropriate. Line and paragraph breaks are automatic; e-mail address are never displayed.
HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
January 6th, 2009 @ 9:31 am
What else is it called? It’s called Collective Punishment. Terrorism is subject to ideological construal, according to who’s doing the construing. Collective Punishment is clearly defined and proscribed by international law, namely the Fourth Geneva Convention. Violations of the Geneva Conventions are known as war crimes.
“Collective punishment is the punishment of a group of people as a result of the behaviour of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions. In times of war and armed conflict, collective punishment has resulted in atrocities, and is a violation of the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions. Historically, occupying powers have used collective punishment to retaliate against and deter attacks on their forces by resistance movements (e.g. by destroying whole villages where attacks have taken place).” (Wikipedia – go there for history and exact wording of the convention.)
January 6th, 2009 @ 3:17 pm
why dont you update this blog to include the fact that after firing upon the israelis, 2 already wanted terrorists ( Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar) ran into this school for cover?
January 6th, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
truthseeker – it’s always a pleasure to meet someone who simply declares that the only response to being punched in the face is to dismember the puncher, and his family, starting with the babies, because the body count goes higher without much effort. The next step would be to eat the corpses. Unfortunately after the last morsel is finished the satisfaction of being so well-revenged is lost in the regurgitation and descent into barbarism.