Israel shelled a UN compound today and later issued an apology, of sorts. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the IDF responded to an attack coming from the UN location. Ban and the UN rejected that explanation:
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the Israeli army shelled the U.N. complex in Gaza City today because, he told reporters, soldiers “were attacked from there and the response was harsh.”
The shelling set a U.N. warehouse full of food and supplies intended for Palestinians on fire.
Olmert’s office confirmed to ABC News that Olmert talked with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and told him, “This was a sad incident for which I am sorry but our troops were attacked from there and the reaction was forceful.”
The United Nations had already dismissed the self-defense charge.
Anyone else thinking baby milk factory here? The UN also initially denied that Hamas operated from its UNRWA school in the earlier shelling, but eventually changed its tune after the IDF provided videotape from previous attacks at the school. Israel certainly could have made a mistake — we made a similar mistake in our bombing of Serbia when we struck the Chinese embassy — but I wouldn’t dismiss outright the notion that Hamas launched mortars or rockets from the site.
In better news for the IDF, a senior Hamas figure reached room temperature today:
Israeli Defense Force officials told ABC News that Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam was killed today during an Israeli airstrike on his brothers home in Gaza.
Hamas television is also reporting that Siam was killed in what it says was an air strike that flattened a home in Gaza City. A top aide, Siam’s brother and his brother’s family were also killed, they reported. Siam is considered to be among Hamas’ top five leaders in Gaza.
Thus far, though, Hamas still has enough capability to launch missiles and rockets into Israel. Twenty-one more flew out of Gaza despite the intense IDF pressure, injuring nine Israeli citizens. Hamas doesn’t need to maintain its command and control in the short run to keep the attacks up on Israel. Their units, like most terrorist groups, can operate independently, at least while they still have munitions to use and people to fire them,
Still, if the Israelis can reduce Hamas leadership to dust, it will eventually squeeze the resources out of the terrorist cells. Hamas in Gaza knows this too, which is why they’re getting a lot more interested in that Egyptian cease-fire than their counterparts in Damascus.
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