HAMAS AND ITS DISCONTENTS

A Newsweek Article - HAMAS AND ITS DISCONTENTS - reveals the truth about one of the notorious incidents during the Gaza War: the shelling on 15 January of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society buildings followed by a shell hitting its Al Quds Hospital next door:

"Asked if there were any militants firing from the hospital or the Red Crescent buildings, hospital director general Dr. Khalid Judah chose his words carefully. "I am not able to say if anyone was using the PRCS buildings [the two Palestine Red Crescent Society buildings adjacent to the hospital], but I know for a fact that no one was using the hospital." In the Tal-al Hawa neighborhood nearby, however, Talal Safadi, an official in the leftist Palestinian People's Party, said that resistance fighters were firing from positions all around the hospital."

It's also becoming quite obvious that Hamas' franchise partner in Gaza, namely UNRWA and its functionaries are in it up to their necks. The article repeats the standard UNRWA line from its head John Ging claiming that the Israeli version about the bombing of the UNRWA-run school on 6 January that the schools were being used as firing positions against them "is implausible." The conclusion that Ging wants us to reach namely, that it was a deliberate unprovoked attack by the Israelis is even more implausible given that the IDF and eyewitnesses quoted by Reuters noted that the dead victims included at least two Hamas operatives who were identified by name and that their shells landed outside the school. Even the Melbourne Age concedes that!

"Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Avital Leibovich, head of the IDF's foreign-press branch, counters that the military has documentary evidence including aerial surveillance tapes of the northern part of Gaza City "in which you can see schools next to [Hamas] training camps, launching sites in or near schools or from the streets themselves …When fire is opened at us and soldiers are in a life or death situation, we protect ourselves and Hamas is accountable for casualties if it chooses to put a launching site near schools and hospitals." She also gave NEWSWEEK a copy of what she said was a Hamas map which paratroopers recovered during ground operations inside Gaza. 'It shows how a neighborhood was taken and divided into three war zones. Hamas centers were scattered over the neighborhood including a gas depot with explosive charges … On the map, you can see the Football Association and Technical School are surrounded by 45 Hamas positions, from which Hamas fired.'"

We still await an explanation from UNRWA about reports of the hijacking by Hamas of humanitarian aid shipped into Gaza from Israel in recent days. It's terribly strange that, during the heat of the conflict just two weeks ago, the UNRWA people were able to investigate incidents and come to a 99% conclusion on who was responsible in time to meet the morning news deadlines of the major media, yet on this serious allegation about Hamas, two days have passed and UNRWA talking heads are none the wiser about the whole thing. There seems to be a breakdown of communication between the franchise partners down there in Gaza - possibly because the Hamas side is too busy celebrating its glorious victory.