I mean, if an Israeli family was killed we’d be hearing about it non-stop; but this was just a Palestinian mother and her four little children. Just some collateral damage…
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m43498&hd=&size=1&l=e
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
Mon Apr 28, 1:59 PM ET
(Quite the headline. According to this, the IDF didn't kill anyone, Israel didn't kill anyone ...)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An explosion shattered a tiny Gaza Strip house as Israeli troops battled militants Monday, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children in new bloodshed that threatened efforts to arrange a truce between the warring sides.
(Perhaps Israel's intention?)
Palestinians said the house was hit by an Israeli tank shell; Israel said explosives being carried by militants blew up and brought down the two-room structure.
(And that's as far as the AP is willing to probe this?)
Miyasar Abu Meatak was preparing breakfast for her children in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun when an explosion ripped through the home, her stepson Ibrahim said. Four of her children, ages 15 months to 6 years, were killed instantly, and she died shortly afterward at a hospital, Palestinian officials said. Her two older children were reported critically wounded.
"What a black day. They killed my family," the grief-stricken father, Ahmad Abu Meatak, wailed outside the hospital. Abu Meatak said he was on his way to a nearby market when the house blew up.
The force of the blast scattered clothes and other household items outside the wrecked home. A single white child's shoe, flattened by the explosion, lay near a pair of blue shorts covered in sand. A green baby seat, one end bent, stood empty.
Omar Abdel Nabi, a farmer in a large crowd watching workers clean up debris and bloodstained sand, said he was driving his tractor in a nearby field when two or three explosions shook the ground.
"People were screaming that a tank shell landed in the next street," he told The Associated Press. "I carried two people covered in blood out of a house."
Israel's military said its troops launched an operation in the town after gunmen approached a border patrol. Palestinian Health Ministry official Moaiya Hassanain said two militants (still someone's son, brother, father ...) and an unidentified man were also killed in the fighting.
In a statement, the military said explosives carried by the militants were detonated by an Israeli airstrike, and the blast from the explosives hit the house, not a tank shell, "and uninvolved civilians were hit." Palestinians said the militants were at least 400 yards from the house and none of the fighters were killed near the structure.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak put the blame on the Islamic militants of Hamas, which has run Gaza since defeating the rival Fatah movement in a five-day battle last June.
(Why is the AP still repeating this? Hamas routed Fatah fighters who were being used in a Coup Attempt facilitated by Israel and the United States. The evidence has been brought forward. The media's willingness to ignore it, and so misrepresent the situation, is inexcusable.)
Barak said Israel would continue to operate in the volatile coastal territory.
(As planned months before the Annapolis conference.)
"We see Hamas as responsible for everything that happens there, for all injuries," Barak said during a tour of an Israeli weapons factory. "Hamas is also responsible, by operating within the civilian population, for some of the civilian casualties."
(How nice of the Ap to repeat this fallacy without comment ...)
During fighting April 16, a Reuters TV cameraman was killed by an Israeli (flachette) tank shell in central Gaza.
At least 18 rockets and dozens of mortar shells were fired at Israel from Gaza on Monday, the Israeli military said. No one was seriously hurt. Palestinian militants frequently launch rockets from Beit Hanoun.
(In response to Israel's illegal Collective Punishment of Gaza, which their own defence staff warned against.)
In recent weeks, militants have also tried to infiltrate into Israel at least four times.
(Just as Israeli troops have infiltrated Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians, over the past few months.)
Monday's violence was a blow to Egyptian efforts to mediate a truce between Israel and Gaza militants.
(Israel has no intention to make peace, and this new stage of their war to wipe Palestine off the map is intended to eliminate the ELECTED Palestinian Government.)
Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza's Hamas prime minister, accused Israel of trying "to ruin any regional and international efforts to end the siege and halt aggression."
Last week, Hamas said it would accept a six-month cease-fire with Israel, provided Israel ended the economic blockade it imposed on Gaza after the Hamas takeover. The blockade has caused shortages of fuel, cement and other basic items in the impoverished territory.
(Such as food, water, medicine, sanitation, etc ...)
Israel dismissed the truce offer, saying Hamas would use the lull to rearm after sustaining heavy losses in recent fighting. But Israel said it would hold its fire if Hamas and smaller Gaza militant groups halted their attacks.
(This excuse is quite laughable, seeing as Hamas would not need to rearm, or at least restart their Resistance, if Israel were to begin real negotiations towards wnding its decades-long war on the Palestinians. Note that Israel says it will cease-fire if the individuals in Gaza do first. This is systemic to Israeli DEMANDS which are always designed to scuttle offers of peace.)
While battling Hamas in Gaza, Israel has been conducting peace talks with the rival Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
(A stalling tactic, intended to curtail international action and criticism, while Israel further destroys Gaza and its people, and rushes to create thousands of new illegal Settlement spaces in the W. Bank.)
Abbas condemned the new Gaza fighting, saying it would make peace negotiations with Israel even more difficult. "We emphasize the need to achieve calm and keep our people away from the agony of war and destruction," he said.
The sides hope to reach a peace deal by the end of the year, though Abbas acknowledged after a trip to the White House last week that he was growing pessimistic because of the lack of progress in talks.
(Because this is all a charade.)
In the West Bank on Monday, a Palestinian military court ordered the execution of a man convicted of collaborating with Israel.
Judges said the man, a Palestinian security officer, provided information that helped Israeli forces kill four Palestinian militants. Abbas must approve death sentences, though often they are commuted.
The last execution was in 2001. Suspected collaborators are often killed vigilante-style before they can be arrested and tried.
(But back to the murder of that Palestinian family ...)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080428/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
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Olmert Offers Phony 'Remorse'
30.04.2008 02:34
At start of weekly cabinet meeting, prime minister says Israel regrets 'tragic incident which left a mother and her four children dead.' He stresses, however, that 'we are also sorry for our own children, who have been getting hurt for many years now'
(As have Palestinian children - only in much, much greater numbers ...)
Roni Sofer Published: 04.29.08, 10:44 / Israel News
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday expressed his regret over Monday's Israel Defense Forces strike in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, which left six civilians dead.
At the start of the weekly government meeting, Olmert said, "I would like to express my deep regret, on behalf of the Israeli government and the State of Israel, over the tragic incident in which a mother and her four children were killed in Beit Hanoun."
He added, however, that "we are also sorry for our own children, who have been getting hurt for many years now, including the child whose leg was amputated several weeks ago.
(In other words, he's not really sorry. He ignores the fact that the illegal policies of HIS government, and HIS refusal to end HIS war on the Palestinians, which are to blame for every act of violence during HIS rule ...)
"We regret the fact that civilians are being hurt here, and we regret the fact that Hamas is operating from within populated area, exposing them to outcomes we do not intend to reach."
(Hamas is not 'operating from within populated area". Israel is attacking populated areas, fully aware that civilian deaths will be the result. Academics and diplomats have stated for years now that this is no different than intentionally targeting civilians.)
Olmert stressed that the IDF investigation into the incident continues. On Monday evening, the army appointed a colonel to reenact the incident and reach accurate conclusions.
(Perhaps a UN investigation would produce better results. We've all seen the result of Israel being allowed to 'investigate' itself.)
The IDF is sticking to its version that the family members were hurt as a result of an explosion which was caused by an explosive device or explosives carried by a cell of gunmen attacked from the air.
(Despite a lack of evidence, and the fact that the IDF tank fired on the house in question ...)
Addressing the Palestinian rockets fired into Israel over the past 24 hours, the prime minister said, "Throughout the morning hours the Qassam fire towards southern Israel continued, with one of the rockets directly hitting a house.
(This was, of course, their only response to the IDF attacks on Gaza, which murdered several CHILDREN.)
"Yesterday, 18 rockets were fired at the Gaza vicinity, and another house in Sderot sustained a direct hit. Luckily, not one was injured."
Olmert went on to address a possible truce mediated by Egypt, saying clearly that "I hope the terror organizations' brutal fighting will cease. I regret the fact that it continues.
(But he rejects a cease-fire, since HIS government, aided by the Bush/PNAC Regime, engineered this entire situation, with the goal of dividing the Palestinians, stalling the peace process, and avoiding Israel's legal and moral obligations.)
"I believe our regret is more real, sincere and painful than the regret of the terror organizations we are facing. But as long as the terror organizations fire at the south's residents, the IDF will continue to operate against them."
(Knowing that so long as HE keeps sending the IDF to murder children, the rockets which were the result of HIS government's Collective Punishment, will keep coming.)
Defense Minister Ehud Barak also addressed the situation on the southern front Tuesday morning. "Israel is in a state of conflict with Hamas, rather than in a hudna (ceasefire)," he said while touring the security fence route in Beit Arieh, near the West Bank.
(Right. Israel rejected a cease-fire, because it plotted this aggression long before Annapolis - or the rockets its actions provoked - and plan to keep slaughtering civilians and destroying infrastructure until and unless they are forced to stop.)
"Hamas is responsible for everything happening in the Gaza Strip. The operations also put civilians in danger. We are not happy when civilians are hurt, but view Hamas as the one to blame," he added.
(The rejection of the Palestinians' elected Government by the Extremists in the Israeli Government who have no intention of allowing a Palestinian state to be created, are actually responsible.)
Bodies of children killed in Beit Hanoun (Photo: AP)
Other ministers also referred to the issue during the cabinet meeting. "Hamas is using the children and the families as a human shield, but war is war and terror is terror," said Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai.
(Israel told these same LIES during their aggression into Lebanon, but were soundly refuted by analyses of satellite imagery.)
"Although we do not wish to hurt innocent people, but unfortunately this happens. We must improve our PR efforts to present Israel in a better way."
(HA!)
Housing and Construction Minister Ze'ev Boim said, "Israel must continue to develop means which will distinguish between involved and uninvolved populations. We must remember that not all the civilian population is uninvolved. The families in Beit Hanoun allow people carrying weapons to walk about between their houses and near their children."
(Put up or shut up ...)
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit wondered, "Aren't children being hurt here? Aren’t we in a state of war with Hamas? Every night children are injured here. We are at war and have no other way but to fight Hamas. I object to a ceasefire with Hamas which will allow them to continue smuggling weapons."
(I reject to a cease-fire, but I don't want to keep murdering. Honest!)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3537284,00.html
Israeli Attack Kills Palestinian Mother, 4 Children
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?14129S
IOF shelling knock out Beit Hanun electricity transformer
April 29, 2008
GAZA, (PIC)-- IOF shelling of the Beit Hanun electricity transformer station during its incursion into the town in northern Gaza on Monday knocked out power in the area and paralyzed water supplies.
A Hamas statement on Tuesday charged the Israeli occupation forces with deliberately targeting the transformer station in line with the policy of tightening the siege on Gaza.
It said that around 200,000 citizens in northern Gaza spent Monday night in complete darkness and are still suffering from electricity outage and lack of water for 24 hours, which also affected work in hospitals and clinics.
Attempts to repair the transformer went in vain because the IOF troops continued to shell the vicinity, Hamas said, and held the "Zionist enemy" responsible for the catastrophic results of continued electricity blackout for the second consecutive day.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, fired a number of home made projectiles at Israeli targets surrounding the Strip in retaliation to the IOF crimes.
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m43538&hd=&size=1&l=e
It would be interesting to see how close the murdered Palestinian family lived to this location ...
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