Of course the deaths that occurred are tragic, but let's please get the facts right about that UN School incident that wasn't.
John Ging, UNRWA's operations director in Gaza, acknowledged in an interview this week that all three Israeli mortar shells landed outside the school and that no one was killed in the school.
Stories of one or more shells landing inside the schoolyard were inaccurate.
Why did the fucking UN allow this misperception to linger for weeks. The incident is bad enough without the sensational propagandisitc addition that "Israel bombed UN School" which has circled the globe 45 times already.
From a local eyewitness:
While a few people were injured from shrapnel landing inside the white-and-blue-walled UNRWA compound, no one in the compound was killed.
//
...The teacher, who refused to give his name because he said UNRWA had told the staff not to talk to the news media, was adamant: ‘Inside [the compound] there were 12 injured, but there were no dead. Hazem Balousha, who runs an auto-body shop across the road from the UNRWA school, was down the street, just out of range of the shrapnel, when the three shells hit. He showed a reporter where they landed: one to the right of his shop, one to the left, and one right in front. ‘There were only three,’ he said. ‘They were all out here on the road.’
http://www.spectator.co.uk/...
So Hamas militants fire mortars at Israeli sodliers from an adjacent street next to the school - a street apparently filled with civilians. Soldiers return fire and an international incident is born. Headlines blare across the world that Israel targets UN School, thus creating a propagandistic bonanza for Hamas.
Two residents of the area who spoke by telephone said they saw a small group of militants firing mortar rounds from a street near the school, where 350 people had gathered to get away from the shelling. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Now the Globe and Mail story says no witnesses saw any Hamas militants firing mortars from the street, so perhaps they are unaware of the two residents who did witness that happening as has been reported everywhere.
News of the tragedy travelled fast, with aid workers and medical staff quoted as saying the incident happened at the school, the UNRWA facility where people had sought refuge.
Soon it was presented that people in the school compound had been killed. Before long, there was worldwide outrage.
John Ging, UNRWA's operations director in Gaza had this to say.
"Look at my statements," he said. "I never said anyone was killed in the school. Our officials never made any such allegation."
(but here's what he said right after the incident)
Speaking from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as the bodies were being brought in that night, an emotional Mr. Ging did say: Those in the school were all families seeking refuge. ... There's nowhere safe in Gaza.’
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/...
Mr. Ging, your story doesn't hold water.
And here's an account of the UN changing stories in mid flight.
The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs got the location right, for a short while. Its daily bulletin cited ‘early reports’ that ‘three artillery shells landed outside the UNRWA Jabalia Prep. C Girls School ...’ However, its more comprehensive weekly report, published three days later, stated that ‘Israeli shelling directly hit two UNRWA schools ...’ including the one at issue. Such official wording helps explain the widespread news reports of the deaths in the school, but not why the UN agencies allowed the misconception to linger. ‘I know no one was killed in the school,’ Mr. Ging said.
Now let me reiterate that it's tragic civilians got killed in this incident.
But why in hell did the more comprehensive UN weekly report change the story from the original one which had stated the shells landed outside the school?
Is the UN investigating how that happened? Is the UN holding anyone accountable for that "mistake" which led to the false claim that Israel targetted that UN school? Why was Mr. Ging so misleading in his original statements to the press? And I ask again why it took so long for the UNRWA to publicly correct this mistake?
moon