Thursday, January 28, 2010
Well, this is something I guess:
Human Rights Watch rejected a Hamas claim that the Palestinians did not target Israeli civilians with rockets during the Gaza war.
In a statement Thursday, the human rights group said there is strong evidence that "Hamas' claim that rockets were intended to hit Israeli military targets and only accidentally harmed civilians is belied by the facts."
A Hamas commission investigated claims in the United Nations' Goldstone report and will turn the report over to the United Nations before the Feb. 5 deadline set for responses, according to reports.
The Goldstone report found that both Israel and the Palestinians committed possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in last winter's Gaza war. The report asked both sides to order independent probes.
Human Rights Watch said that Hamas deliberately targeted civilians with rockets during the Gaza war and restated that targeting civilians is a war crime, the French news agency AFP reported...
For more on the Hamas report, see Elder of Ziyon: Hamas plans response to Goldstone this week, Hamas finds itself innocent. What a surprise., Hamas lies about Shalit in response to Goldstone, and Oh, and another Hamas fact...
I think this is a lot actually and if you add in the thousands fired before Cast Lead the whole scenario makes much more sense.
Obviously the Israelis didn't just go attack Gaza for no reason - the rocket attacks have been going on for years and they're serious despite attempts to portray them as "crude, homemade" or "pop-bottle" rockets; they can bring down a house and they can - and have - killed. Also the whole area has had to spend hours at a time in bomb shelters - it's a terrible way to have to live.
The business about trying to hit the military is ridiculous in light of previous bragging about hitting "settlers," ie farmers and kids and schools in Israel.