Posted on 07/23/2002 7:59:23 AM PDT by RCW2001
SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 23, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/23/national1018EDT0556.DTL
(07-23) 07:41 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
President Bush denounced as "heavy-handed" an Israeli warplane's missile attack on a Gaza City apartment building, which killed a Hamas leader at the top of Israel's most-wanted list and at least 14 other Palestinians, including nine children.
"This heavy-handed action does not contribute to peace," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday, pointing to "the loss of innocent life."
"This message will be conveyed to Israeli authorities, and the United States regrets the loss of life," the spokesman said.
Fleischer rejected comparisons between the missile strike and American attacks in Afghanistan that have killed civilians.
"It is inaccurate to compare the two, because the United States, because of an errant bomb, a mistake in a mission, has occasionally engaged in military action that we very regrettably included losses of innocent lives," Fleischer said.
"This was a deliberate attack on the site, knowing that innocents would be lost in the consequences of the attack," he said, adding that Bush still remained a strong backer of Israel.
With his condemnation, the White House joined European and Arab nations who called the strike irresponsible and denounced the civilian deaths.
The Israeli Embassy responded to the White House criticism with a defense of the targeting of the leader of Hamas' military wing.
"Like the government of the United states, the government of Israel regrets the loss of innocent civilian lives," spokesman Mark Regev said. "However, out military action against one of the most dangerous Hamas terrorist leaders was a justified action of self-defense."
Palestinians vowed revenge as they dug through wreckage from the strike, which obliterated a three-story building and destroyed or badly damaged several adjacent ones.
The attack killed Salah Shehadeh, 48, a founder and the top commander of Hamas' military wing, known as Izzadine el-Qassam, the group said. The group has carried out scores of attacks, including more suicide bombings than any other Palestinian faction in the current Mideast conflict.
"This operation was in my view one of our biggest successes," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Cabinet ministers. "We hit perhaps the most senior Hamas figure on the operational side," Sharon said of Shehadeh, who was jailed first by Israel, and then by the Palestinians, from 1988 to 1999.
But by firing a powerful missile into a densely packed neighborhood in the middle of the night, civilian casualties were a certainty, Palestinians said.
©2002 Associated Press
Liar. Israeli's freak when civilians are killed.
I'd think that should be:
Israeli's freakwhenafter civilians are killed.
...because if the former were true, there wouldn't be any civilians killed by Israelis, would there?
When you go to Baghdad, you'll find all their military assets hidden in the mosques, and homes of the innocents.
Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands will be sacrificed by Saddam in his quest for glory.
The US will be singled out as barbarians for killing the innocents.
Here is an excerpt from an interview about that very subject:
Ha'aretz reported in the name of "a security source" that the timing of the attack was determined by operational and intelligence constraints, and that attempts to hit Shehada had been put off several times, including in recent days, for fear of harming civilians.
Here is another:
Col. [res.] Moshe Hager told Arutz-7 earlier this week that he knows of several recent incidents in which the army refrained from hitting its targets because of the presence of innocent people nearby.
So my question to you is this, is it worth saving Palestinian innocents over and over only to allow Jewish innocents to be continualy murdered again and again as you wait? Both ways innocents die, one way the innocents are yelling bloody murder, the other way they are just being bloodily murdered.
You must be 4/7ths, cause you think like her. Clueless and bigoted.
Killing a Hamas leader is 'heavy handed'.
It is clear, now, that in November of 2000, we had the choice of electing Al Gore or Al Gore.
Pallies lie for affect.
routinely.
compared to intentional targetting of civilians by muslim terrorists of palestinian origin... one little baby is regrettable, but these guys HIDE with children... kill their own, take pictures and do it on purpose for sympathy....
screw em... and go on to the next target.
These terrorist territories have been given the lists of folks Israel wants to arrest... I suggest they turn them over or suffer the consequences...
They actively protect these killers, they MUST pay the price for their immoral choice... Why give ANY credence to their "alleged" losses, when we KNOW they lie and would KILL a living nine month old of their own for 30 gs, and leave the corpse on the impact site, just for affect?
Pallies are ALL LIARS... who says they did not blow up a baby and leave its body in the rubble to get sympathy... LIKE THEY HISTORICALLY HAVE DONE???
I for one do NOT believe it. And DON't CARE if it is true either.
FReegards...MUD
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