Jul 30 2006
Israel Kills Civilians In Air Raid, Did Hezbollah Target The Attack?
Update:Now there are questions as to when the building collapsed (H/T to readers and other sites like Hot Air). Did Hezbollah do more than entice an Isreali attack? Did they stage the attack including the demolition and killing? Which news agencies were first on the scene to cover this eleborate event?
Update: Israel will be releasing more video (no links for any video yet) of rocket launchers being driven into civilian areas of Qana during the last 20 days where 150 rockets were launched from the area during that time
Update: UPI is inaccurately reporting that the building next to the launchers seen in the Fox video was ‘the wrong target’. Actually, if those launchers were in the parking lot of the building (which is probably where they were to ensure a proper surface for targetting) then the building was in the ‘kill zone’ of the bombs. The bombs only need to be off target a few meters to hit a key foundation point of a building and bring it down. But it was Hezbollah who placed their launchers at the site knowing full well that the Israelis retrace launches to their launchers. Hezbollah targetted the Lebanese who died by enticing an Israeli defensive response against their offensive rocket attacks. No rocket attacke no Israeli response and no dead Lebanese.
Addendum: What Hezbollah has done by placing their weapons nearby known civilian centers and enticing a defensive attack from Israel is a war crime and against the Geneva Conventions. The UN, EU and liberal hand-wringers better start pointing to the true criminal acts here. If Israel simply traced rockets back to their launchers and bombed these launchers that is a DEFENSIVE military response to an attack. That makes the culprit Hezbollah. Is the UN goinbg to look the fools agains? We shall see.
Update: I just saw the first images released by the IDF of the rocket launches from qana. They are infrared iimages showing multiple launches from a building in the area. I counted 6-7 8 launches from what appears to be two launchers positioned in front of a building.
The IDF is double checking that the launches came from the exact building they ended up targetting. But even if it the building is within the ‘neighborhood’ that would make the Israeli action warranted. The IDF warned the people to leave days ago. I would guess Hezbollah would not be below forcing civilians to stay in the area. It is clear Israel has exposed a lot of their capabilities in publicizing these images. The perspective of the images shows these images were made by Special Forces monitoring activities from inside Southern Lebanon. So Israel is paying a price to show the world the war crimes of Hezbollah in hiding within civilian areas but obviously enticing Israel defensive attacks on these areas.
Update: Here are more details on the evidence that Israel will produce that Hezbollah was not only hiding among civilians, but probably were deliberately enticing Israeli bombs.
IAF Brigadier Yohanan Locker: ‘Hezballah Guerillas Launched Rockets At Israel And Then Ran For Cover Inside Building That Was Bombed’
‘Air Force Has Airial Photos Documenting Hezballah’s Use OF Lebanese Civilians As Human Shields’
The IDF has been consistent in their response to rocket launchers. So This is not an accident, this is a deliberate effort to create a PR campaign by Hezbollah killing Lebanese.
Update: The news about the IDF video showing Hezbollah inviting attack by launching rockets from a location nearby or on top of where civilians were huddled in the basement of the destroyed building is now hitting Meet The Press. This news must get out ASAP so the anger in Lebanon and in the Arab street is retargetted at Hezbollah where it belongs
Breaking Update: Fox News is reporting that the Israeli IDF is reporting that they have video proof that Hezbollah did in fact in place artillery and ricket luanchers in the area and therefore did entice Israel to attack the area. More on this when the details come out. Addendum: The Israelis respond by tracking a rocket immediately back to its launcher so that Hezbollah cannot move the equipment our of the way Israeli bombs or artillery. This is math. There is now way to understand what is in the area of the launchers in this type of age old defensive act.
There is no way to ignore the two bits of news we have seen this weekend in deciding how to go forward in dealing with the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. First came pictures and first hand accounts of Hezbollah moving artillery and rocket launchers INTO civilian populations and attracting the wrath of Israel which uses the trajectory of the rockets and shells to pinpoint the source of an attack. This is DEFENSE 101 in military tacticts. Even if there was not a large scale attack ongoing, any missile launch by Hezbollah would receive the same defensive attack (note the artillery or missiles must be launched first in order to target the source).
Now we see the results of such tactics as Israel accidentally kills a lot of civilians, including chilfren, as they track attacks by Hezbollah and respond as predicted.
Olmert said that the area was a focal point for the firing of Katyusha rockets on Kiryat Shmona and Afula. He said that from the outset of the conflict, “hundreds of rockets have been fired from the Qana area.”
Defense Minister Amir Peretz was also profoundly repentant for the fatal strike, saying, “this is a tragic incident that is a result of war. Hizbullah operates in the heart of populated centers with the full knowledge of endangering the lives of innocent civilians.”
So it is clear who targetted Israeli jets and their bombs: it was Hezbollah. We have the proof from the Australian reporting one day prior. As I said when posting the pictures of Hezbollah locating their weapons in civilian areas, this clear war crime has to be exposed. Because Hezbollah finally got what they wanted. They aimed Israeli bombs at their own people.
Photos that damn Hezbollah…
Hezbollah is made up of cowards that are afraid to meet their enemy in the battlefield like real soldiers, but they hide in civilian areas, hoping that Israel will not attack, and knowing that if they do, more civilians will be killed than Hezbollah,…..
Sunday news shows, all the publicity was about civilians accidently killed in Lebanon.
Why no outrage that every one of the rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel is TARGETTED AT CIVILIANS!!!
I can understand MSM hysteria, they hate the US and they see what Israel is doing as if it were the US doing it.
But Fox News was covering it the same way today. WTF?
A hospital in Israel was hit by a rocket yesterday. I heard it yesterday, but nobody mentioned it today. THOSE WERE CIVILIANS!!!
Why were 20 children in the basement of the building? The Hezbollah had taken over the building to launch rockets and KNEW they were going to be hit and they would win the publicity war by deliberately killing those children. I don’t care if somebody disagrees with me, but it was the Hezbollah that killed those children.
If somebody is in a building shooting at me, they better be prepared for return fire and it wouldn’t be very smart to have their family in there with them.
Israel has been telling civilians to leave that area for two weeks. Hezbollah continues to prevent people from leaving and continues to intentionally fire missiles from civilian areas. Hezbollah is intentionally drawing Israeli fire into civilians. Hezbollah are terrorist criminals that will intentionally kill their own civilians. They were fully aware Israel would strike that building.
These deaths should be blamed on Hezbollah.
also, if there were missiles stored inside that building, it would make the damage worse.
This incident was in a Christian area, so the people killed were probably Chrisitian. To birds with one stone……
Now the Arabs are saying many of the children in the building were handicapped. Ahhh yes, try for all the sympathy they can get. Well, I personally hope that they were all made orphans in the attack.
Asked if building being used for firing rockets were legitimate targets, the answer was,, well, the rockets were legitimate targets. What a clown.
Okay. Europe loves to go after Israel. PERIOD. But here they have to use the Geneva Conventions to do it. And, the reality that the Internet supercedes the crap that flows from the MSM.
So? Will we be seeing the Geneva Conventions printed on rolls of toilet paper? If Israel is “guilty” because they’re Jews; and the Hezbollah is not guilty. Then the Europeans are so corrupted they’re willing to waste good laws on the LAWLESS.
I do note that there are a lot of muzzies now living in Europe. Better there than anywhere. I also see our Canadian citizens waking up.
And, I do see that Israel seems to have an excellent handle, and stays calm, when dealing with the media.
In other words, all that business of “trading land for peace,” produced nothing. This, too, condemns the Europeans. Seems they were just glad about shrinking Israel. Then, they wanted Israel to shrink from this fight.
And, I also notice, when people ask “why are we (Americans) still in Iraq,” I answer: Because our troops are needed to stand like SAMSON between the two pillars. Pillar #1: Syria. Pillar #2: Iran. And, this means Iraq is not a giant highway, a conduit, where the nut job in iran, can send the pencil-necked despot in syria, much in the way of better rocketry. In other words a lot of bad things are STOPPED.
The other thing I noticed is that Israel took one (iranian) missile hit to a ship, about ten miles off the Lebanese coast. (Another hit sunk a cambodian commercial vessel.) This means that iran had eyes on oceanfront property. It wanted to defang the Israelis. And, guess what? It wanted to threaten all the ships at sea. Even those going through the Suez.
But gaza’s a mess. And, Israel fought back. And, the lebanese needed to be woken from their deep sleep.
What kind of sleep were the lebanese enjoying? It was very Vichy. It was the posture the french usually take, first. Before the end up surrending. What the french do, both the men and the women, to use Winston Churchill’s words: Is to walk forward towards you, with their legs spread wide open.
Hitler, it’s been said, always had tirades when the news brought to him wasn’t “sunshine and roses.” Saddam used to pull out his pistol and just shoot his own commanders who brought him information with which he needed to re-assert his “authority.”
In Iraq, Maliki (malarky), must realize that the “dream” of a crescent spreading from the coast of syria/lebanon, all the way into persia, just went up in smoke. A pipedream of smoke.
Yup. In those bad lands a lot of the men have guns. They’re goons. And, there are no laws, presently, that puts them in jail. That’s why there’s no stoppage. And, if the europeans lick this up like ice cream, then having laws on toilet paper just gives ya the runs.
Close up video of the demolished building shows that the Israeli’s did a super demolition job. totally rubble.
Why aren’t they showing video of the Israeli hospital hit yesterday. Wasn’t that a BAD thing?
Ten years ago Operation Grapes of Wrath was launched by the Israelis against Hezbellah in Lebanon. It ended when 100 civilians were killed in Qana. I wonder if Hezbellah thought this would be a handy dandy way to get a cease fire. Just get a bunch of civilians killed and voila! the war is over. Until the next time. The bastards. I agree with Enforcement here, Hezbellah killed these people, after all they started the whole damn thing and they could end it right now if they wanted to.
This incident was in a Christian area, so the people killed were probably Chrisitian. To birds with one stone……
Left by Barbara on July 30th, 2006
What do you mean by this?
The rockets were launched from perhaps 50 yards, almost a block away. the reporter said. 50 yards? almost a block? maybe somebody should give some reporters some math and/or engineering courses. 50 yards would be like the distance from the front yard to the back yard.
(and this is from Fox News) I don’t even watch CNN but I can imagine how wild eyed, slobberingly, giddyly happy they are today.
“What do you mean by this?”
Hezbollah has a history of killing Christian Lebanese. They used to set bombs in the Christian areas. So this would serve to both make Israel look bad, and kill some Christians who in Lebanese politics tend to be anti-Hezbollah.
The damning proof – Hezbollah wanted civilians targeted…
Via the Sunday Sun – an Aussie paper, photos that show Hezbollah mixing with the populace, dressed in civilian clothes, using civilians as shields.
“The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density resi…
Not A Good Thing…
To support Israel is not the same as being immune to the tragedy of the current situation, and the latest strike that killed several dozen children is indeed just that: a tragedy. The calls for a ceasefire will grow stronger now, and indeed, Condi wa…
“(IsraelNN.com) Senior IDF officers told reporters a short time ago that there is a contradiction in the timing of the bombing of the village of Kana and reports of the explosion that killed more than 50 civilians and set off world-wide condemnation of Israel. Air Force Commander Amir Eshel left open the possibility that Hizbullah terrorists blew up the building or that an unknown cause set off explosives which were stored in the structure.
He explained that recorded information shows that Israeli Air Force planes bombed the building between midnight and 1 a.m. and that the next attack at 7:30 a.m. was up to 500 yards away. He said reports of the killing of civilians came around 8 a.m. “It is not clear what happened” between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m., he said.”
Link
More here.
(Note: I got the above to from postings on Rantburg.)
“An IDF investigation has found that the building in Qana struck by the Air Force fell around eight hours after being hit by the IDF.
“The attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear,” Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of the Air Force Headquarters told journalists at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, following the incidents at Qana.
Eshel and the head of the IDF’s Operational Branch, Major General Gadi Eisnkot said the structure was not being attacked when it collapsed, at around 8:00 in the morning.
The IDF believes that Hizbullah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse.”
Terrorists (Islamists) have used women and children as shields and worse for centuries. It is certainly nothing new and not unexpected. The Ayatollah Khomeini used 8 yr old children to sweep mine fields during the Iran-Iraq war, telling them that as martyrs they would be beloved of Allah. Some classy religion, huh?
There are two videos I have seen today related to the events in Qana.
The one you appear to be describing shows an elevation view (from the side) of a large ~4 story structure seen from a fixed position. This video was filmed 8 days ago according to the timestamp on the video.
According to http://www.fallingrain.com/world/, Qana is located at coordinates
33°12’29.00″N 35°18’1.00″E
(Enter that string directly into the search box of Google Earth to locate it).
There is no building in Qana or its immediate vicinity that matches the one shown in the video. Now, the building may have been constructed after the satellite view was made. Or, the town I have identified as Qana may be wrong. But, in all likelihood, the video you are describing is *not* depicting the building that was struck last night.
This is further supported by various description of the structure as a “3 story house”. If that large building had been struck and collapsed, there would be no way it could be described as a house.
Fox is reporting a Reuters report of a possible 48-hour ceasefire. Reporters on the border are reporting a stop in artillery fire.
Molon Labe
I went to the link you gave and looked up those coordinates and the satellite imagery does not magnify enough to see any buildings in that city. If you go to Google and enter the coordinates, you get a map of the US. clearly the coordinates are in Lebanon.
So I don’t understand that part of your comments
I do agree that the structure in the video is not a 3 story house, but then the Israeli’s said that the building in the video may NOT be the building in question.