Everyone jumped on the bandwagon to condemn was appeared to be Isreal's responsibility for
the deaths of 7 on Gaza beach. Condemnation came from around the world, here at DKos and from Israel itself.
Israel immediately apologized for the incident despite not knowing for sure what happened. Israel started an investigation (and yes, I know how much respect some Kossacks have for Israeli investigations).
There are some problems with this story and Israel can not assure itself it was responsible for this.
Issue #1 - Israel fired six shells about this time at a field North of the beach area. Five of the six shells have been accounted for which means, obviously, one is unaccounted for. Only there is a lag between the time the shells were fired and the explosion.
Issue #2 - One witness describes a hollow shell hitting and then a SECOND shell hitting causing the explosion. But Israel is not missing two shells.
Issue #3 - The videos of the event show camera crews filming before the ambulances arrive. They also show the dead without blood and undamaged screaming witnesses. One memorable one shows a little girl running (camera crew in tow) screaming looking for her father, whom she finds dead. How was she found by a camera crew before she found her father? We aren't talking about a large beach here. Where are the other dead? Or the crater? Or evidence of an explosion?
Issue #4 - Hamas has cleared the site. The PA refuses to give the details on the exact location of the explosion to the IDF.
A Palestinian security source said Sunday that Hamas operatives had cleared the debris from the explosion which killed seven Palestinian civilians on Friday in order to frustrate the IDF's attempts to investigate the incident.
I don't know what happened but given the al-Dura incident and Jenin, I have to question this event. This would not be the first time that Palestinians have faked videos/events and the MSM has accepted it as fact.
I would like to apologize.. there is an excellent Ha'aretz article on this but for some reason their server is having problems. I will try again later and update if it comes up.