Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 22, 2009

"No Hamas tunnels here!" "What about that one?"

Najah Abd Rabo shook her head and said Israeli actions were beyond comprehension. "They were claiming there are tunnels under here," she said. "There aren't any tunnels around here, we are not resistance," she said. Yet not more than 20 feet away from Najah, there was just such a tunnel, which Israeli troops had unearthed. Right in the middle of the road, it had a convincingly camouflaged roof that matched the rest of the road. Inside it was shored up with timbers and concrete.

A case of "eyewitness" lying, or a case of Hamas knowingly putting civilians at risk?

Probably both. It is hard to be completely ignorant of "civilians" popping up out of the street in front of your home.

How many dead in Gaza? Hard to say.

An Italian reporter is claiming that there were no more than 500-600 deaths, total, in Gaza: (h/t Backspin)

The number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead did not exceed five or six hundred, Lorenzo Cremonesi, a correspondent for Italy's Corriere della sera reported on Thursday.
Cremonesi based his report on tours of hospitals in the Gaza Strip and on interviews with families of casualties. He also assessed the number of wounded to be far lower than 5,000, the number quoted by Hamas and repeated by the UN and the Red Cross in Gaza.
"It is sufficient to visit several hospitals [in the Gaza Strip] to understand that the numbers don't add up," he wrote.
In the European hospital in Rafah, one of the facilities which would presumably be filled with wounded from the "war of the tunnels," many beds were empty, according to Cremonesi. A similar situation was noted in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and in the privately-run Amal Hospital Cremonesi reported that only five out 150 beds were occupied.
Cremonesi interviewed Gazans who echoed Israel's insistence of how Hamas gunmen used civilians as human shields. One Gazan recalled civilians in Gaza shouting at Hamas and Islamic Jihad men, "Go away, go away from here! Do you want the Israelis to kill us all? Do you want our children to die under their bombs? Take your guns and missiles with you."
"Traitors, collaborators with Israel, spies of Fatah, cowards! The soldiers of the holy war will punish you. And in any case you will all die, like us. Fighting the Zionist Jews we are all destined for paradise. Do you not wish to die with us?" the religious fanatics of Hamas reportedly responded.
Other Palestinians told Cremonesi of Hamas operatives donning paramedic uniforms and commandeering ambulances. A woman identified as Um Abdullah, 48, spoke of Hamas using UN buildings as launch pads for rockets.
Cremonesi reported that he had difficultly gathering evidence as the local population was terrified of Hamas.

YNet reports this a bit more cautiously:

Despite the claims, the IDF stood behind its estimate that between 1,100 to 1,200 people were killed in the Strip during the fighting, more than two-thirds of them Hamas members.

The army initially believed that the number of civilian casualties was higher, as many Hamas men walked outside their houses dressed in civilian clothes, leaving their weapons at home.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, who is in change of the emergency department at the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, denied the figures presented by the Italian paper.

Hassanain told Ynet that the Palestinian figures were issued cautiously, without any political considerations, and that several casualties may not have been reported as their bodies are still under the rubble or have not been handed over to the rescue forces and authorized medical officials.

A Tal al-Hawa resident told the newspaper's reporter, "Armed Hamas men sought out a good position for provoking the Israelis. There were mostly teenagers, aged 16 or 17, and armed. They couldn't do a thing against a tank or a jet. They knew they are much weaker, but they fired at our houses so that they could blame Israel for war crimes."

The reporter for the Italian newspaper also quoted reporters in the Strip who told of Hamas' exaggerated figures, "We have already said to Hamas commanders – why do you insist on inflating the number of victims?"

These same reporters mentioned that the truth that will come out is likely to be similar to what occurred in Operation Defensive Shield in Jenin. "Then, there was first talk of 1,500 deaths. But then it turned out that there were only 54, 45 of which were armed men," the Palestinian reporters told the Italian newspaper.

These new figures must be treated with caution especially in light of the fact that various official sources in the Gaza Strip, including United Nations and Red Cross officials, have reported that more than 1,300 people were killed and some 5,000 wounded during the three weeks of fighting in the coastal strip. Palestinian sources claim that three-quarters of the dead were unarmed civilians.

I have no doubts about the anecdotes, but it is very hard to know how many were killed, and Cremonesi's methods of counting do not seem too rigorous.

The PCHR makes a point of listing the names of the dead when it can, and they count 1284 dead. (The site is unavailable at the moment.) I don't think that they are lying about the total, but they do count civilians in ways that I would not agree with. For example, they count Hamas leaders Said Siam and Nizar Rayan as civilians.

They also count the Hamas police as civilians.

Here are some raw numbers of claims from the Gaza side of militants/terrorists killed during the operation:

Hamas - 48 (an absurdly low number)

Gaza "civil defense" - 11

Islamic Jihad - 39

Gaza "police force" - 230

Fatah's Al-Mujahideen Brigades - 5

Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades -3

PRC - unknown, at least 3 I know of

DFLP - 13

PFLP - unknown, at least 1 I know of

Fatah members killed by Hamas - at least 16

All terror groups according to PCHR: 223 (not including the Gaza police, civil defense, infighting, public Hamas figures)

The PCHR certainly doe not distinguish between Gaza civilians killed by Israel and those killed by Hamas, in "friendly fire" or misfires.

I don't have a solid idea of the real numbers, so this is just to throw some data out there.

News briefs

A liberal Arab wrote an op-ed describing how Hamas' ideology results in their disregard of the value of human life. He sarcastically stated "This is a wonderful ideal to say that the steadfastness of the resistance or simply the survival of their leaders underground or in exile, or simply the survival of the ideology, is in itself a victory or a defeat for the enemy!"

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article about a joint Jewish-Muslim women's group in France, where they get together once a month to make and eat baklava. The secret to their success? They don't allow political discussions.

The Arab Times of Kuwait has a truly nonsensical op-ed, where the author pretty much calls all Arabs collaborators with Israel, including the late Yasir Arafat and the later Saddam Hussein. He ends up by saying:

The bitter fact which Israel - the entity which has stolen our land – is aware of is that a day will come when the stones and the trees will begin to speak: ‘There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him’ Only then the Al-Aqsa Mosque will be liberated just like it was liberated by Salah-ud-Din, whose origin was Kurdish not Arab, because the Arabs of today are conspirators hiding behind the logo of a ‘Comprehensive and Just Peace.’

I personally can't wait for that day when the stones and trees speak; I'll take a video and make a fortune!

Fatah is calling for mass demonstrations in Gaza today. Hamas is saying that the rally is illegal and that Fatah is trying to cause political problems. Things might get interesting in Gaza.

Palestine Today is quoting a UNRWA spokesman (not the one that I have been corresponding with) as denying that any aid trucks were hijacked. He admits there was one "incident" but seems to say it was all a misunderstanding. Meanwhile, Arutz-7 has more details.

Why the West cannot stop smuggling tunnels

The UAE National newspaper has an illuminating article about the Rafah tunnels, and it is pretty clear that no amount of "memoranda" will be able to stop them from being built.

And the reason is because Egypt will not crack down on them.

After weeks of bombing and despite high-level meetings and diplomatic speeches pledging to end the smuggling of goods and weapons from Egypt to this Palestinian enclave, reconstruction of what the workers here estimate are 1,000 tunnels has continued unabated for the three days since Israel and Hamas ceased firing.

“Israel will never succeed. I will make it 25 metres deep” to avoid the Israeli bombs that destroyed this narrow corridor during the three-week assault, said Abu Haysem, one of the Rafah tunnel owners. Abu Haysem said he built his tunnel out of the basement of his home, which lays, speckled with shrapnel, about 320 metres from, and 14 metres under, the Egypt-Gaza border.

“If Egypt decides to stop the tunnels from working, they can. They can block the roads to Rafah and arrest the tunnel owners,” said Abu Haysem. “Egypt says they will stop the tunnels but they don’t because they want the money.”

That money – 50 per cent of Abu Haysem’s lucrative trade – is used to pay his partners across the border and funds their graft scheme with Egyptian officials.

The sentiment on the ground remains one of scepticism that serious steps would be taken to halt the smuggling. Indeed, most of the tunnelling along the border is done in the open, within sight of Egyptian border posts.

Other than by bribing officials, some tunnel owners claim their tunnels will remain open thanks to Egyptian solidarity with the Palestinians, after Egypt faced the opprobrium of several Arab countries for keeping their part of the Gaza border sealed. That sympathy, said Akram Hamad, a tunnel worker, is partly derived from a common understanding between Egyptians and Gazans: that the Rafah tunnels no longer traffic in weapons. “The Egyptian side has sympathy with us when it comes to food, but when it comes to weapons they are very strict,” said Mr Hamad.

The Egyptians tied to the tunnels apparently do very little actual work building them, but assume the bulk of the legal risk and responsibility for bribing Egyptian authorities to get materials through them.

I tend to believe that most Rafah tunnel diggers are reluctant to smuggle arms nowadays, but the author doesn't consider that Hamas has its own tunnels exclusively for weapons and explosives whose owners are much less likely to grant interviews. Indeed, Hamas has more money for bribes from taxing the goods from the "consumer tunnels," and Egypt regularly finds caches of explosives and arms in the Sinai meant for Gaza. (It is entirely possible that Hamas has built tunnels south of Rafah, as well.)

At any rate, the idea that the tunnels could be closed without full Egyptian cooperation is a non-starter. Money tends to make people a bit less interested in adhering to agreements.

Qaddafi's single state solution in the NYT

Libya's nutty leader Muammar Qaddafi writes an op-ed in the New York Times pushing for a single-state solution, "Isratine." It is certainly ghostwritten by someone who understands the Western mindset - it pushes all the right buttons for well-meaning but uninformed people to warm to the idea of a painless way to destroy Israel. It appears, in fact, to be written with a liberal Jewish audience in mind.

To that end, he adds an interesting paragraph:

It is a fact that Palestinians inhabited the land and owned farms and homes there until recently, fleeing in fear of violence at the hands of Jews after 1948 — violence that did not occur, but rumors of which led to a mass exodus. It is important to note that the Jews did not forcibly expel Palestinians. They were never “un-welcomed.”

Will their be a furious Arab reaction that Qaddafi challenges the entire Palestinian Arab narrative? Or will they stay quiet, knowing that the "Israetine" that Qaddafi is pushing would very quickly turn into Palestine?

Great moments in autotranslation

This is tasteless, but I'm a weak person.

The autotranslation of an article in the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today talks about the alleged ruthless destruction of an entire village by the heartless Zionist army.

It is called the village of Dik Hole:

Destroyed most of their homes and farms and other land
The Israeli army removed the village, "Dik hole" on the map of the Gaza Strip

Words can not describe what you can watch the destruction and devastation and disaster in the Gaza Strip has been the result of the Israeli aggression which targeted over 23 days. But the case of the village, "Dik hole", which is located south-east of Gaza City, completely different, because there is no longer in the village of origin to talk about.

The article continues, including fantastic details like the IDF executing cows of the doomed village of Dik Hole.

There are too many jokes I can make, all of them really inappropriate. I don't doubt that my readers will come up with some, though.

Why is Israel's Gaza medical clinic empty?

JPost reports:

Medics at Israel's newly inaugurated border clinic expressed their frustration Tuesday at the lack of patients from Gaza coming to the facility, which is situated on the Strip's northern border, and was officially opened Sunday.

"I spent the whole day there [Monday] and not one person came to us for help," said one doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous. "The people there are scared, scared of us and scared of Hamas."

A spokesman for Magen David Adom (MDA), which is operating the clinic in cooperation with the Welfare and Social Services Ministry and the Health Ministry said that so far only seven Palestinian children with cancer had arrived at the center for treatment. All had been released, he said.

Situated at the Erez terminal, the clinic is a humanitarian gesture by Israel following the 22-day operation in Gaza. Speaking at its inauguration on Sunday, government officials said that the clinic would accept all patients and that the more serious cases would be referred to Israeli hospitals.

Set up to treat about 50 patients, the clinic is designed to help Palestinians who are either wounded or ill, said Levy.

A mobile intensive care unit and four regular ambulances have been stationed at the Erez clinic by MDA.

The facility is staffed with emergency specialists, pediatricians, family physicians, gynecologists/obstetricians, trauma experts, surgeons, orthopedists, ophthalmologists, otolaryngologists and other experts.

Tony Laurance, acting head of the World Health Organization's office in Gaza and the West Bank, told The Jerusalem Post earlier this week that he doubted that Palestinians would be allowed by their leaders to access the clinic.

Why are Gazans not coming to the clinic? One would think that with thousands of injured civilians, including women and children, people would want to have the best care possible. No one would have any doubt that the Israeli doctors would do an excellent job and would have higher medical standards than those in Gaza. So why is it a failure so far?

The major reason is clearly Hamas. As the WHO official said, Hamas leaders would simply not allow Gazans to be treated there. A little thought would show why.

First of all, Hamas engineered the entire battle to maximize the number of Gazans who would die or be injured. Every day there are new deaths from injuries suffered during the fighting, and each time the number of dead tick up, Hamas has a new propaganda victory. It is not cynical to notice that Hamas values PR more than human lives; it is merely recognizing the cynicism of the terrorists.

The second reason is the flip-side of the first: Hamas does not want any news media to report that Israelis are selflessly treating Gazans. The contrast with the selfishness of Hamas, where they confiscated medical aid to treat terrorists at the expense of Gaza civilians, would not be flattering. Hamas needs to be looked upon as caring more about civilians than Israel is, and will go to any lengths to ensure that Israel does not appear humane.

Thirdly, there are more terrorists injured than Hamas is willing to admit, and they cannot go to Israel to risk capture.

The fourth reason is more insidious. Hamas has now enlisted an army of doctors who are willing to testify - really lie - about alleged Israeli use of white phosphorus, depleted uranium and DIME weapons. These doctors are happy to do so in order to be part of Hamas' jihad against Israel (or, in the case of the European doctors, to simply demonize Israel.)

Israeli doctors treating the same patients would see that these doctors are lying, and would have the physical proof.

A related thought is behind the fifth reason Hamas would never allow Israeli doctors to treat Gazans: because a percentage of Gazan civilian injuries are the direct result of Hamas and its allies' rockets, mortars and guns, as well as secondary explosions. We will never know how many of the innocent civilians who died or were injured were hurt from Hamas fire, but it is reasonable to assume that the numbers are significant.

There were reports from Israel that the tragic death of three daughters and a niece of a Palestinian doctor came not from Israel but from a Grad rocket, as determined by shrapnel removed by Israeli doctors who treated them.

We know that a percentage of mortars and Grad rockets fall short, and we know that these have sometimes fatal results. Shooting rockets hurriedly would increase the number of misfires. There was also at least one IDF video of the bombing of a weapons depot where a rocket shot out of the targeted area and flew a few hundred feet before landing.

In addition, there were some firefights in Gaza between the IDF and various groups, and one would not expect the terror groups to be as careful as the IDF in where they were firing.

How many civilians were killed by Hamas, or by secondary explosions of Hamas ordnance? We will never know. Most of the evidence is buried. But we can be sure that the number is higher than zero, and that Hamas will do everything necessary - including forcing Gazans to forego quality medical care - to ensure that this information never sees the light of day.

(Photo taken today.)

Saudi clerics forbid peace with Israel, Jews

From Firas Press: (autotranslated, cleaned up)

A number of senior clerics in Saudi Arabia have forbidden any collective peace initiative that includes the right of Jews to immigrate to the land of Palestine, and the normalization of relations with them.

The prohibition was a clearly targeting the 'Arab Peace Initiative' launched by Saudi Arabia at the Arab Summit in Beirut in 1982, which until now has been the cornerstone of many of the deliberations on the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

A number of clergymen, judges and university professors in Makkah made this statement after a discussion on the 'injustice and Jewish aggression' in the Gaza Strip. 'The quest for the Liberation of Palestine is a legitimate duty on the peoples and governments, and that what the jihadist factions intended to achieve; this is one of the greatest legitimate duties'.

They called for all governments and peoples to activate the economic weapon at all levels against the Jews...

The groups called on all Muslims to extend a helping hand to their brothers in Gaza, giving them all kinds of support, and seek to ensure the families of the victims of aggression, and to work to rebuild what has been demolished and vandalized by the Jews.

Sheikh Suleiman Al-Tuwaijri declared in a speech at the beginning of the meeting that the 'war on Gaza is not a war against Hamas, but rather is an extension of the conflict between infidelity and Islam', and drew attention to the urgent need these days to close ranks and come together to repel the enemies of the Islamic nation.

He asked everyone to strive for money and to pray, and pointed with shame at the Jews.

[Sheikh] Bin Jibreen said this is payment to the Jews for their cooperation with the Crusaders, calling them an enemy to Islam and our religion...

And the Saudi "peace" initiative sounded so promising, too! Oh well.

Australian Islamic cleric: Raping your wife is A-OK!

From The Daily Telegraph (Australia):

AN AUSTRALIAN Islamic cleric has told his male followers it is permissable that they force their wives to have sex and hit them if they are disobedient.

Melbourne's self-styled cleric Samir Abu Hamza said despite Australian rape laws it was impossible for a man to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex with him.

In a recorded lecture entitled "The Keys to a Successful Marriage'', delivered to his male worshippers but now broadcast on the internet and viewed by several thousand people, Hamza said Islamic law allowed men to hit their wives as a last resort but they were not to make them bleed or become bruised.

He said under Islamic law, as described in a Koranic verse, it was a man's right to demand sex from his wife whenever he felt like it.

"If the husband was to ask her for a sexual relationship and she is preparing the bread on the stove she must leave it and come and respond to her husband, she must respond,'' Hamza told his male followers on the video sermon.

He then mocked Australia's criminal laws which required consent for sex to be lawful.

"In this country if the husband wants to sleep with his wife and she does not want to and she hasn't got a sickness or whatever, there is nothing wrong with her she just does not feel like it, and he ends up sleeping with her by force ... it is known to be as rape.

"Amazing, how can a person rape his wife?'' Hamza asked.

Despite concerns about his preachings being raised by female members of the Islamic community, Hamza yesterday stood by his comments and blamed controversy caused by them on a hidden zionist agenda run by the media.

Questioned about his teachings, Hamza said a wife was allowed to be hit on the hand or leg, but "of course, not on the head''.

He said if a Muslim wife disobeyed her husband, such as continuing to go out when requested not to, she was able to be subjected to moderate physical punishment.

"It's like sometimes when a person smacks a child, it's like `shape up','' he said yesterday.

I just love that lecture title, "Keys to a Successful Marriage."

Do you think that women who talk about how empowering the hijab is will now defend Hamza?

Gaza religious affairs ministry: "No weapons in mosques"

Just in case you has the slightest thought that you could trust anything that Arabs are saying when they are accusing Israel of crimes...

Palestine Today quotes the Religious Affairs Ministry (not sure if it is from the PA or Hamas) saying that there were no weapons stored in mosques in Gaza, along with some good old fashioned anti-semitism:

Dr. Abdullah Abu Djerboue, Undersecretary of the ministry said in a press statement: "The ministry is in the process of inventory of mosques that were destroyed, we are still gathering information..."
He said that the destruction of mosques is "a Talmudic religious hatred and a distorted look at Islam and Muslims with the hatred as described in the Torah and the distorted, false Talmud."

He said that "these people (the Jews) killed the prophets and the messengers of the Lord of Glory as stated in the Koran," adding that "these attacks on the mosques would not only increase the hate against Jews and every conspiracy against Gaza will not go unpunished. "

He refuted Israeli claims that the mosques were being used as stores of explosives and weapons, saying that all the mosques that were destroyed and blew up do not prove the existence of the explosives and none of the explosions demonstrate the presence of weapons or explosives. "

He asked, "Is the resistance [Hamas] that stupid to store their weapons in mosques after they were targeted?"

Can't argue with that logic.

This anti-aircraft cannon and other weapons found in a mosque were clearly planted there by the Zionists:

Because what possible reason would Hamas have for storing weapons in mosques, or schools, or private houses, where Israel would be reluctant to fire and where the very act of firing at them would cause much hate among world Muslims? Really, does that make sense that Hamas would want that to happen?

Gaza not exactly carpet bombed

From the Daily Telegraph (h/t Backspin):

I knew Gaza well before the attacks, so when Israel ended its ban on foreign journalists reaching Gaza on the day the ceasefire was announced, I was able to see for myself.
One thing was clear. Gaza City 2009 is not Stalingrad 1944. There had been no carpet bombing of large areas, no firebombing of complete suburbs. Targets had been selected and then hit, often several times, but almost always with precision munitions. Buildings nearby had been damaged and there had been some clear mistakes, like the firebombing of the UN aid headquarters. But, in most the cases, I saw the primary target had borne the brunt.
...For the most part, I was struck by how cosmetically unchanged Gaza appeared to be. It has been a tatty, poorly-maintained mess for decades and the presence of fresh bombsites on streets already lined with broken kerbstones and jerry-built buildings did not make any great difference. And the same can be said for the mindset of many of Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Outsiders might have expected some sort of collective anger at the loss of life, or mass outrage at the Hamas authorities whose policy of firing rockets against Israel had brought down the wrath of the Israeli armed forces.

This next paragraph needs to be emphasized:

But I found that, so steeped is the Gazan mindset in the narrative of victimhood, there was no internally-focused groundswell of anger at what had happened. Palestinians in Gaza have felt victims since 1948, when a small number of locals were suddenly swamped by a larger number of refugees, forced to flee land taken by Israel at the creation of the Jewish State. For 60 years they have dwelled on victimhood, a supplicant people grown dependent on foreign aid and reliant on the role Israel plays as the scapegoat for all ills.

This is the relevant fact that needs to be addressed for any real peace to ever happen. When one side always blames the other for every problem and loses the ability for introspection, there is no chance that they can change for the better.

The aid battle continues

The picture on what exactly is happening with aid trucks into Gaza is getting a little clearer, no thanks to the UNRWA which is keeping mum on the ugly details.

As commenter Suzanne uncovered, last year Hamas admitted it confiscated 16 trucks of aid from Jordan, meant for the Palestinian Red Crescent, and Jordan was not happy about it:

Minister of State for Information Affairs Nasser Joudeh said Hamas government on Thursday seized 16 trucks carrying emergency supplies into Gaza.

"We are surprised it should be confiscated and distributed in a manner based on political considerations...this only penalizes those who really deserve this aid," Joudeh said. Hamas claimed that the Red Crescent was not distributing the aid properly, since it is more oriented towards Fatah.

Hamas claimed that it would give that aid, which presumably was paid for by the ICRC... to UNRWA.

The denial that Chris Gunness gave me saying that he was unaware of any such incidents with any NGOs, and casting doubt on their having happened, seems less and less tenable.

Today, the JPost adds more details to the more recent incident: (also h/t Suzanne)

Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip claimed that dozens of trucks loaded with food and medicine were being held on the Egyptian side of the border at the request of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The officials said that the humanitarian aid came from several Arab and Islamic countries about two weeks ago. They said that the Egyptian authorities initially tried to deliver the aid to the Palestinians, but were stopped by Abbas.

"Abbas and Fatah are afraid that the aid would be used to strengthen the Hamas government," said a Hamas official. "That's why they are doing their best to prevent much of the aid from entering the Gaza Strip."

Another Hamas official claimed that the aid had been diverted to the West Bank, where Fatah representatives have confiscated the medicine and food. He did not rule out the possibility that some Fatah leaders were planning to sell the food and medicine in the black market.

The Hamas government said Tuesday that it has established a special fund to help the victims of the IDF operation and urged the international community not to give Abbas's authority any money.

Hamas also said that it would not allow the PA to play any role in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. It said that the money should be channeled directly to the victims and not to Abbas's aides in Ramallah.

Fatah strongly denied the allegations and claimed that Hamas militiamen have been stealing the aid since the beginning of Israel's military operation.

Fatah also warned donors against dealing with Hamas directly.

A Fatah official said that on Monday night alone, Hamas gunmen intercepted 12 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid that had been donated by the Jordanian government to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

He said that the trucks were on their way to the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) when the gunmen belonging to the movement's armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, stopped them and confiscated their contents.

The Jordanian authorities confirmed on Tuesday that Hamas gunmen had seized the trucks shortly after they entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

Last week Fatah activists and eyewitnesses in the Gaza Strip claimed that Hamas had confiscated fuel and food that was en route to hospitals and schools housing thousands of Palestinian families.

We have here a classic turf war, where both sides are accomplished liars. If we discount everything that any Gazan says, we still have Jordanians saying that on at least two occasions their aid convoys have been confiscated by Hamas.

The intriguing part is that Hamas considers UNRWA to be on its side. Given my correspondence with UNRWA's spokesman, and UNRWA's adamant refusal to say anything negative about Hamas even as it put untold thousands of civilians at risk, they may have good reason to consider UNRWA as their own.

UPDATE: Palpress, which is Fatah-oriented, blames Israel for not letting ten aid trucks in from Egypt, not Fatah.

UNRWA tries to sweep incidents under the rug

I again asked the UN Spokesperson whether he could confirm or deny that a humanitarian aid convoy was hijacked by (presumably Hamas) gunmen, as reported by the official Jordanian news agency. (My initial posting on the event is here, my earlier correspondence with him is here.)

My question was:

Have you yet been able to confirm whether any trucks meant for UNRWA were attacked as Petra reported?

The reply this time is:

No which suggests it may not be true as our gaza office r normally quick to get back to me. pls send link to your site so I can see who you are. Thanks. C

When dealing with official spokespersons, one must parse their words carefully. For example, Mr. Gunness can be seen here on TV saying that he is "99.9% certain" that no terrorists were in the UNRWA school that was damaged from IDF bombs in an incident that killed 40 people, but the interviewer doesn't ask whether any fighters were immediately outside the school nor whether there were any explosives in the school itself, that could have detonated from secondary explosions set off by IDF shrapnel in shooting back at mortar fire. This explanation is consistent with both what the IDF and UNRWA spokespersons said but most reporters would not think to ask about it.

In this case, Chris is saying that he did not receive any answer from Gaza yet (he is based in Jerusalem,) which "suggests" that the incident never happened. It may also "suggest" that it did happen and that the Gaza UNRWA employees are not anxious to blame anything on Hamas, ever.

Finally, a newspaper has tried to get more information. From the Jordan Times:

Anonymous armed men captured a 13-truck convoy laden with foodstuff donated by Jordanians after entering the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official told The Jordan Times Tuesday.

Now we have two sources.

Neither the convoy’s drivers nor the trucks, which entered Gaza at the Karm Abu Salem crossing, are Jordanian, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The drivers were released; the hijackers drove the trucks.

The shipment was unloaded from a Jordanian convoy after it crossed into the Palestinian territories and then carried by non-Jordanian trucks rented by UNRWA into Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority official said: “This is not the first incident of this kind. We have learned that the food items, which were supposed to be given to Gazans for free, were being sold in the marketplace in Gaza City.”

On Monday, an 11-truck convoy carrying food items from Kuwait was also seized at gunpoint, he added.

The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation spokesperson denied he was informed of any hijacked aid convoys.

Government officials in Amman did not know about the case or were not available for comment.

UNRWA spokesperson Sami Mshasha told The Jordan Times on the phone from Jerusalem that he was not aware of any hijacked aid convoy, being busy with arrangements for the visit of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Gaza.

Mshasha said he would follow up on the report, but remained unavailable despite repeated attempts by The Jordan Times to contact him.

There were details here that were not in the original: the number of trucks hijacked, the thought that a Kuwaiti convoy was similarly hijacked, and a couple of details at odds with the original report (such as that the truck drivers were released.) UNRWA's reluctance to get back to the Jordan Times reporter is also very interesting.

I don't think that I will get any more information from UNRWA. My guess is that the reports are essentially true; it is very consistent with reports on how Hamas acts for the past year and, as we have seen, there has not been a denial about this one nor any of the four previous instances that I enumerated, only spin. The UNRWA in Gaza, just like the reporters there, live in a constant fear of Hamas (and are generally sympathetic with Hamas' political aims as well) and as a result one will have a hard time finding the truth from named sources who are afraid that they will be shot in the legs, or worse, for making Hamas look bad.

Parenthetically, after Chris realized I had sent the link, he asked me:

where do u fit in politically? C

I answered:

I'm not sure why that is relevant, but you can see from my site that I would be considered a fairly hawkish Zionist. I spend a great deal of time trying to understand the Palestinian Arab psyche, and I am much harsher on their leadership than on the people.

Also parenthetically, I had a correspondence with this same UN spokesman last April, where he tried to diminish a fairly ugly incident where the UNRWA on the West Bank was attacked by Palestinian Arabs and shut down for three days, an incident that UNRWA never put on its website:

HI there,

There had been problems but these have now been avoided for the time being.

Chris

As I posted then:

To the UNRWA, violent attacks by the people they are meant to help are embarrassing events that should never be mentioned to the public because the UNRWA is emotionally invested in making sure that the Palestinian Arabs appear purely as victims and never - never - as being partially responsible for their own problems.

This is the fundamental reason why Israel is regularly castigated by the UNRWA, but Hamas gets a free pass.

UPDATE: More correspondence:

Is there condemnation on your site (which your link didn't get me into) of the white phosphorous attacks on neutral UN compounds? Does it carry the Secretary General statement calling for those responsible to be punished? Chris

And my response:

My site is a blog and it clearly has biases. While I do not attempt to be a comprehensive news source and my choices of stories reflect my bias, I do attempt to be as accurate as possible. (Which is not altogether different from the mainstream media, although they are not willing to admit their biases from either the right or the left.) The blog is a part-time hobby and there is no way for me to cover everything, so I tend to try to find stories that others do not cover. (And, yes, I am quite critical of UNRWA on the site.)

I touched on the white phosphorus issue, and one of my commenters wrote a comprehensive essay on the topic. My understanding is that its use is legal for illumination and for smoke screens, and that there is no evidence that the IDF used it in an illegal manner. In my opinion, it makes no sense for the IDF, as well armed as it is, to use that tool as an offensive weapon since there are plenty of legal weapons at its disposal, and it makes even less sense for the IDF to target civilians nor UNRWA facilities deliberately. The Red Cross said that they had no evidence of illegal use of white phosphorus as well. (My guess is that some of the phosphorus shells may have been exploded closer to the ground than was intended and some people may have been hurt as a result, but I am no military expert.)

My latest posting on our correspondence is here:http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/01/unrwa-tries-to-sweep-incidents-under.html with links to earlier posts. You are welcome to comment, of course.

Thanks again,

Update on hijacked Jordanian aid convoy (UPDATE 2)

Ma'an finally cover the story I broke this morning, although I still have not found any non-Arab media mentioning it:

The Jordanian news agency Petra reported on Tuesday that armed men held up an aid convoy after it crossed into the Gaza Strip.

The agency reported that armed men fired at the trucks and diverted them to private warehouses after they passed through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, an Israeli-controlled crossing used primarily for shipments of humanitarian aid.

The supplies had been donated by the Hashemite Jordanian charity organization. The trucks earlier crossed into the West Bank using the Allenby Bridge and then proceed to Gaza.

According to the report, the charity had coordinated in advance with UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, to receive the shipment in its warehouses after it entered Gaza.

Also according to the report, UNRWA has suspended other aid shipments as the trucks and drivers are still being held in Gaza. Negotiations are reportedly being held for their release.

Ma'an pointedly doesn't mention that it was Hamas that did this act, as Petra reported. (correction: PalPress reported it was Hamas, not Petra.)

I emailed to the UNRWA:

Mr. Gunness:

This morning the Petra news agency of Jordan reported that one or more
aid trucks from Jordan, meant for UNRWA,were hijacked at gunpoint by
Hamas. Does UNRWA have any comment?

How many times has this happened, to any NGO aid?

Has UNRWA ever condemned Hamas for such actions?

Thanks

His answer ignored the last two questions and pushed off the first:

We are looking into this and I hope to have a reply for you soon. Chris

Keep in mind that Ban Ki Moon is in Gaza as this is happening, and he is silent on a direct attack on aid for the UN!

UPDATE: I replied back:

Chris:

A appreciate any timely updates you can provide. Ma'an 's English version of the Petra report adds that negotiations are now underway with the apparent kidnappers and that UNRWA has suspended other aid shipments. Can you confirm that?

Meanwhile, could you answer the other questions I asked about any previous similar incidents you are aware of, and if the UNRWA has ever publicly condemned Hamas for these sorts of activities?

Thanks again

And Chris' reply was:

Not aware of any similar incidents -- indeed the Israelis in our regular co-ord meetings have praised our record on this -- so am slighly surprised by this alleged report. we have certainly not suspended any aid shipments. Not aware of any similar incidents in the past so no need to condemn anyone. C

I just replied back:

Chris:

Thanks again for your reply.

The similar incidents that I have seen include:

January 6, 2009:
Reports say Hamas takes a cut out of all aid that arrives, including flour and medicine. Supplies intended to be distributed without gain among the population is seized by the group and sold to the residents, at a profit to the Hamas government.

One such incident was recorded Monday, when a convoy of trucks carrying supplies through the Kerem Shalom crossing was opened fire upon and seized by Hamas gunmen. Similar incidents occurred with trucks carrying fuel.

April 7, 2008:
Hamas militiamen in the Gaza Strip on Sunday attacked fuel trucks headed toward the Nahal Oz border crossing, forcing them to turn back, sources in the Palestinian Petroleum Authority said.

The fuel was supposed to go to the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] and hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the sources said.
"Dozens of Hamas militiamen hurled stones and opened fire at the trucks," the sources added. "The trucks were on their way to receive fuel supplied by Israel. The drivers were forced to turn back. Some of them had their windshields smashed."
February 7, 2008: Hamas policemen seized a convoy of humanitarian aid bound for the Palestinian Red Crescent on Thursday evening, the second convoy it has taken from the aid agency, aid employees said.
Policemen from Hamas halted 14 trucks filled with food and medicine at a checkpoint after it crossed an Israeli checkpoint into Gaza on Thursday, said employees of the Palestinian Red Crescent, who declined to be named, fearing reprisals from ruling group Hamas. A Hamas official said the aid was seized because the organization was distributing aid to former Fatah fighters and not to impoverished Palestinians.
Employees from the Red Crescent said they were meant to distribute the aid to some 8,000 needy Gaza residents from lists of people the organization keeps. The aid came from the organization's regional headquarters in Jordan, an employee said.
Are you saying that you were not aware of any of these incidents, or that each report was found to be false after investigation?
Thanks again,

UPDATE 2: Chris replied:

If u read the reports carefully (and I am not sure any of them r true) they don't include reports of unrwa aid being stolen. Can u send me a link to your site?

Which I did.

He is technically right; the only report that mentioned UNRWA mentioned an attack towards trucks going to Nahal Oz to pick up fuel for UNRWA, not stealing fuel meant for UNRWA. The other stories talked about aid meant for Red Crescent and unspecified aid, until today's story (which the UNRWA has not confirmed or denied yet and that Petra has not followed up on.)

It seems strange to doubt five stories of five separate incidents (including this one) from different sources all saying that Hamas interferes with aid, but since eyewitnesses who would out their words on the record would likely be killed by Hamas pretty quickly, the UNRWA can maintain plausible deniability about these reports.