Israel created 'terror without mercy' in Gaza

[Violet_Crumble]

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
The Guardian, Tuesday 7 April 2009

The Israeli military attacked civilians and medics and delayed - sometimes for hours - the evacuation of the injured during the January war in Gaza, according to an independent fact-finding mission commissioned by Israeli and Palestinian medical human rights groups.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society yesterday said their findings showed Israel's military committed serious violations of international humanitarian law. In their 92-page report, compiled by five senior health experts from across the world, they documented several specific attacks, with interviews from 44 separate witnesses.

Human rights groups have accused Israel's military, as well as Palestinian militants in Gaza, of war crimes. "The underlying meaning of the attack on the Gaza Strip, or at least its final consequence, appears to be one of creating terror without mercy to anyone," the report said.

In one incident, the researchers found a Palestinian, Muhammad Shurrab, 64, and his sons Qassab, 28, and Ibrahim, 18, were shot by Israeli troops at close range without warning on 16 January during a ceasefire. Qassab was hit in the face and died soon after. Ibrahim was hit in the leg. The soldiers refused to give medical aid, and only after 23 hours was an ambulance allowed to approach, by which time Ibrahim was also dead.

Yohanna Lerman, a lawyer with the medical rights groups, said although their report was a preliminary investigation this one case alone was enough to indict Israel's political and military leaders.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/07/israel-gaza-human-rights-report

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[aquart]

2. Because terror is NOT the weapon of choice of the Palestinians?

Your attempt at sarcasm kinda misses the mark.

Why you think a military action should be sweet and gentle and well-mannered is more than I can understand. They went to kill. They killed.

I suspect your objection is that it was shooting fish in a barrel. Well, if you're a fish who lives in a barrel, you're a damned fool to fire rockets from that barrel, dontcha think?

[EFerrari]

5. I bet all those dead kids wished they'd never fired any rockets now!

[Violet_Crumble]

7. They killed lots of civilians, not that small details like that worry you...

Well, if you're a fish who lives in a barrel, you're a damned fool to fire rockets from that barrel, dontcha think?

Since when were the civilians who were killed firing rockets???

[LeftishBrit]

8. These are human beings we're talking about...

Do you think everyone who was killed had been shooting rockets?

Whatever you think of the military action's necessity, that's a pretty callous way of describing the deaths IMO.

(And yes, I react the same way when people justify attacks on Israelis.)

[EFerrari]

4. Hey, hey! I don't need any of these cowboys coming here and leveling my house!

And you forgot Caracas. Tehran, San Francisco and Caracas!

[Alamuti Lotus]

10. Aye, I did forget to wedge in that Red Menace!

But like I said, I was tired.. :)

[Violet_Crumble]

6. There's a bit to be added to make it have just that right PR zing...

al-Dura, hoax, Jenin, hoax, the UN reads the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and let's not forget ROCKETS. And where do you get off bad-mouthing Bibi and calling him a Likudnik? They weren't even in power, and you have to give him at least 200 days to show what he's got. He's offering peace! Don't you get it? PEACE!!!! ;)

[Alamuti Lotus]

9. well, I was tired -- and I DID mention rockets, damn it

there's a certain sense of irony to the disappeared; when the squad says precisely what I did and mean it, that's ok -- but the (barely a-) parody is scrubbed. I need to hire a professional complaint squad, apparently. The bombings will continue until peace breaks out!

[azurnoir]

3. Creating terror was the goal wasn't it?

to demoralize the people of Gaza to the point of giving up, and that it could force them to live in the ruins of that military outing indefinitely because who is going to stop them? Proving that IDF could do anything it pleases free of consequence both during and after the magic word is rockets, especially the ones that land in the middle of nowhere and leave no damage