Posted on 03/06/2003 11:43:03 AM PST by anotherview
Mar. 6, 2003
IDF says Gaza casualties caused by Palestinian bomb blast, not tank fire (UPDATE)
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
Eleven Palestinians were killed and over 100 wounded during an IDF incursion into the Jebaliya refugee camp in the north Gaza Strip aimed at destroying the Hamas infrastructure, seeking out weapons and arresting fugitives.
The operation is part of ongoing plans to destroy the Hamas infrastructure officials said. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in the operation.
The IDF flatly rejected Palestinian claims that eight of the dead were civilians who were killed when an IDF tank fired a shell at a local store. IDF officials claimed that a powerful bomb placed in the store by Palestinians exploded; the force of the blast ripped a door of its hinges, which rammed into an APC.
At a press briefing with military reporters, Gaza Divsion Commander Brig.Gen. Gadi Shamni declared "the incident concerning the store had nothing to do with us. It is a miracle that none of our soldiers were hurt.
The fact that Palestinians hold civilians hostage and place a powerful bomb inside a store with two floors over it that contain residential apartments shows who we are dealing with," he said.
Shamni also stressed the strict firing regulations upheld by all the forces and noted that throughout the operation all the incidents where troops had to shoot were monitored from vantage positions and cranes and filmed from a drone that flew overhead.
Only two tank shells were fired during the operation, the first one was fired at an armed terrorist who positioned himself in the second floor of an empty building and threw bombs and shot at troops.
The floor was completely open without any walls and was therefore easy to focus on him and hit him. The second tank shell was fired at a terrorist armed with a grenade launcher who positioned himself at a corner of a house and was preparing to shoot at one of the tanks.
Also in that instance the soldiers identified a clear hit and no other civilians were wounded.
Shamni stressed that he had no knowledge of the Palestinian media reports that claim many civilians were wounded. "Unfortunately the Israeli media also reports of the many Israeli civilians who were wounded, on a day where we bury 15 souls murdered in the Haifa bomb attack." The army noted that throughout the operation Palestinian ambulances were able to move freely in the area.
PA officials described the eight-hour IDF operation in the camp as a massacre. PA official Saeb Erekat declared that the army's actions were in revenge for the suicide bomb attack in Haifa.
"This operation shows how pressured Mofaz and Sharon are feeling, but the massacre will cost the people of Israel dearly," he said in an interview on CNN. Many of the dead and wounded were hit by IDF tank shells as they attempted to extinguish a fire that broke out in a store and others attempted to retrieve furniture Palestinian reports claimed.
"The Israelis have slaughtered 77 people in February alone, over 250 Palestinian civilians have been killed in the past three months, and the world does nothing," said Ibrahim Suliman a Hamas leader in Hebron. Ismail Abu Shnab, a Hamas leader in Gaza warned that "Israel will pay dearly," and that Sharon and Mofaz will be to blame.
Two of the wounded were Reuters photographers, one of them Ahmed Jadallah who lost a leg an eye was later transferred to hospital in Israel for treatment that was coordinated by the Israeli district liaison office in the Gaza Strip.
Shortly after midnight IDF forces accompanied by armored and engineering units with combat helicopter support entered the camp. The soldiers arrested senior Hamas fugitive Abed Al Karim Zaide and demolished his home after finding Kalashnikov rifles, grenades, two twenty kilogram bombs, large amounts of explosives, two anti tank rocket launchers, five anti tank rockets and shell launchers.
Officials said that throughout the operation IDF forces came under massive gunfire, and Palestinians fired anti tank rockets at the troops and threw over ten bombs in addition to the gunshots.
The troops who planned to leave before daylight were delayed when one of the tanks got stuck in a narrow alleyway and extra troops were deployed as well as a bulldozer to push the tank out. Shamni stressed that he had no knowledge of the Palestinian media reports that claim many civilians were wounded.
If you have time could you expand on this statement? What are the references to ex-Israeli tankers and to X-rays?
When I heard that report on the radio news this morning I thought that was most uncharacteristic of the IDF. They have been very careful to avoid collateral damage, even if some don't think so.
You haven't called me a bigot and a liar again yet. You're losing your delicate touch.
Exactly. I wonder if that Radio station corrected its words.
What are you talking about? The only people targeting civilians are the terrorists themselves. They do not care about their "brothers."
Can't be that of, it just happened Tuesday. Do you know someone discharged yesterday?
The CBS Evening News tonight claimed it was a tank shell that killed the civilians. There was no mention whatsoever by CBS that the Israeli's had a different version of the incident. Do you ever get the feeling that a major propaganda war is being waged against the Judeo-Christian culture of this world?
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