Saturday, January 24, 2009

Report: Hamas may have murdered children of Gaza doctor

Israel Insider

Medical evidence indicates that the shrapnel that hit a member of the family of Gaza gynecologist Ezzaldeen Abulaish came from a terrorist weapon, not the military-grade ordnance used by the Israel Defence Forces.

Abulaish lost three children and a niece in an explosion that he ascribed to an Israeli tank shell.

Channel 1 Israeli government television reported Sunday night that medical imagery taken at Barzilay Hospital, where his wounded niece was taken, indicates that a round object that appeared to be a ball bearing was lodged in her brain. Ball bearings are used by Hamas in their munitions along with other sharp objects to maximize their lethal effects. The IDF uses nothing similar in its tank shells. The IDF admitted that shells were fired at a sniper in or near the building. However, it is also conceivable that the Gaza Doctor, who was an outspoken critic of Hamas, and on excellent terms with Israeli reporters and medical personnel, was in fact targeted along with his family, by the Islamic terrorist organization.

Hamas used the fighting as a cover for settling scores with political enemies and what it termed "collaborators" by summary executions. At least 8 Fatah activists were reported lynched by Hamas, and the possibility that Hamas might have set off a bomb to kill an Israel-friendly peace activist and get Israel blamed for the event can hardly be discounted. Similar murderous actions are suspected of having been carried out near the UN school where victims were killed by an explosion not considered consistent with an IDF shell that fell near but not on the school.

Hezbollah is believed to have exploited a similar incident in the village of Kana in the 2006 to get Israel blamed for killing women and children, some of whom may have been dead before the explosion.

The possibility that Abulaish may have been targeted by Hamas is increased by the fact that the Doctor had been featured prominently on Israeli TV just a day or two before worrying that an Israeli tank was near his house. In that case the IDF moved the tank and marked the house as not being a target.

The evidence has been turned over to the military's ballistics experts, and a final determination is expected to be issued in the coming days.

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