Reply #11: This Is A Tricky Business To Un-Ravel, Ma'am

[The Magistrate]

It has been interesting to follow the news accounts of it over the last couple of days.

There was a report in the New York Times quoting a young Palestinian to the effect that he had with his older brother answered an appeal to assist in piling sandbags to protect resistance fighters near the school, and the young man named at least one such fighter he knew by sight. The account does not disclose, however, who interviewed this person.

A number of reports have referred to both firing at Israeli forces, and Israeli shelling, occurring 'outside' the school, with many of the casualties described as being persons hit outside the school. Unfortunately 'outside' can take in a lot of ground, and gives no solid information regarding proximity.

There is no agreement about what the Israelis fired in news accounts; some say mortar shells, some say missiles. Similarly there is no agreement about what Hamas people fired in the accounts; some say mortars, some say rockets.

There is little doubt in my mind by now that the initial Israeli claim fire was coming from within the school grounds was a reflexive lie, once confronted with the fact of Israeli ordnance striking the school. There is at least agreement in the accounts that militants were operating near the school, and the accounts suggest Israeli ordnance struck around the school, as well as within its grounds.

The question becomes the familiar one of whether there was deliberate targeting of the school, or errant fire landing there. Accident is not necessarily a sufficient defense, for it opens the question of whether sufficient care was taken to avoid harm to non-combatants. If the fire came from Israeli mortars, on the authority of a front-line junior commander, that possibility looms large: mortars are not very accurate weapons, when all is said and done, even in well-trained hands, and targeting information at that level may well have been very sketchy.