Israel Matzav

Reporter admits Hamas fired Fajr-5 at Jerusalem from right outside Shifa Hospital UPDATED

I wasn't able to embed this clip, but it's worth clicking through to watch it here.

It's a Canadian television interview with Phoebe Greenwood, a reporter for the London Daily Telegraph, who is in Gaza.

At about 1:50 of the interview, she says that the Fajr-5 rocket that was shot at Jerusalem earlier on Tuesday was shot from right outside Shifa Hospital. That's a violation of the Geneva Conventions if I ever heard one.

Listen to the interview here (it's a telephone interview).

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 1:28 AM

I am mildly surprised, but  not totally shocked to find that the video is no longer available. Ms. Greenwood described the rocket that hit Jerusalem as having been launched across the street from the hospital. My guess is that Hamas did not want that description sitting out there, and therefore it bullied Canadian Television into taking the video down.

Jodi Rudoren wrote something similar in the New York Times, which has now been up long enough that it will appear in Google cache even if the Times is eventually forced to take it down. Here's some of what she wrote (emphasis mine).

Suddenly, just after 2 p.m., the crowd was startled skyward as militants near the hospital fired a missile — most likely one that landed near Jerusalem. In an instant, anticipation gave way to fear, and horror, as Israel fired back, explosion after explosion in the distance.

...

First six ambulances, one after the other, unloading the bodies of men identified as militants, at least two of them decapitated. Then three more, this time with children, dead and injured. Another ambulance rushed in, then quickly sped back out to collect more wounded.

Even the medics unloading the bodies grimaced.

“There’s a real massacre now,” said Fawzi Barhoum, the Hamas spokesman, who was at the hospital waiting for the diplomatic delegation. “At the same time when the Arab leaders came to Gaza, 10 persons are killed. At this moment, kids playing soccer are hit. It is a clear reflection of the mind and the thought of the occupation, thinking how to kill more and more Palestinians.” 

It remains unclear whether the intense afternoon bombing was in retaliation for the Jerusalem strike, the second in five days, or an effort to take out as many targets as possible while final details of a cease-fire deal were being discussed. A frenzy of some 200 rockets also flew from Gaza into Israel on Tuesday, hitting the southern cities of Beersheba and Ashdod as well as the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon LeZion; an Israeli soldier was killed in a week of cross-border battles, along with a civilian, bringing the Israeli death toll to five.

...

Dr. Mads Gilbert, a professor at the University Hospital of North Norway, said things were better organized this time than during Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza in 2008-9, also waged to try to stop rocket attacks. “They have learned a lot from the last attack,” Dr. Gilbert said. “So far the capacity is up to the numbers. But I think we haven’t seen the peak.” 

From what's been written here, it should be clear that (a) the rocket was launched in close proximity to the hospital, (b) there were also children in the area from which the rocket was launched, (c) the rocket was launched in close proximity of a children's soccer field, (d) Israel retaliated at the location from which the strike was launched, and (e) (for good measure) Mads Gilbert - who famously lied to the BBC during Operation Cast Lead - is back again.

Read it all.

Labels: Fajr-5 rockets, Gaza City, Geneva Convention, human shields, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:29 PM