'calls upon the government in Gaza to seriously investigate the circumstances of an internal explosion, in which 16 persons were wounded, including 17 children, and 3 schools and a number of neighboring houses were damaged. The explosion occurred in a training site of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) in Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR and testimonies of eyewitnesses, at approximately 10:15 on Wednesday, 20 October 2010, three successive explosions took place in a training site of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, which is located in a densely populated area in Abu Baker al-Seddiq Street in Tal a-Sultan neighborhood in the west of Rafah. Before the explosions had taken place, the site caught fire, smoke billowed and some persons were seen fleeing from the place. The explosions left 26 injuries, including 17 school children, as the children were in front of and inside their schools. The wounded persons were transported to Martyr Mohammed Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah to receive necessary medical treatment.
The training site is located in a densely populated area, where a street of approximately 20-meter width separates the site from the buildings and 3 UNRWA primary and preparatory schools. Dozens of houses, the 3 schools and the electricity network were damaged due to the explosion. The schools are located within a housing project established by UNRWA to accommodate people whose houses had been destroyed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) earlier.
On Thursday, 21 October 2010, the "Rafah Media Network" website, affiliated to the Information Bureau of Hamas in Rafah published reported that: "Hamas started estimating the damages caused to a number of houses adjacent to the resistance site where the internal explosion occurred on Wednesday morning, 20 October 2010. In his statement to Rafah Media Network, a local official of Hamas said that the Movement will immediately reconstruct the houses that were damaged due to the explosion after assessment of damages."
It should be noted that an internal explosion occurred on 2 August 2010 in Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, as a result of which, 58 persons, including 14 children and 9 women, were wounded, 7 houses were completely destroyed and another 30 ones were damaged. PCHR called upon the government in Gaza then to seriously initiate an investigation and publish its results. However, PCHR has not so far learnt of conducting any investigation or taking any measures to ensure the recurrence of such incidents.
In light of the above, PCHR:
1. Calls upon the government in Gaza to seriously investigate the circumstances of the explosion in Rafah and publish its results; and
2. Points to the seriousness of the continued storage of explosives by the Palestinian resistance groups in civilian-populated areas, which poses a constant threat to the lives of civilians, and constitutes a violation of human rights and international humanitarian law; accordingly, such behavior must be banned. Storing explosives in such a way becomes more serious under the IOF's public and continued threats to attack such sites.'
So when an Israeli injures one Palestinian boy who was involved in an ambush the BBC leads the news with the full story, but when more than a dozen Palestinians are injured by a Hamas weapon going off accidentally not a word. Why? Do the BBC not want people to know the truth about Hamas? Do the BBC not want the people to know the truth about what is really going on in Gaza? Do the BBC just want to ramp up the hatred aimed at Israel?
Yahoo do report the story in the form of a picture of an injured child and this text:
'A injured Palestinian schoolboy receives treatment at 'Al Najar' hospital in the southern Gaza strip town of Rafah, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010. A Hamas security official said a blast in a Gaza military compound has wounded women and children. The spokesman, who requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue, says five children, three women and another five residents were lightly injured by the explosion which shook through densely crowded neighborhood of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. He did not give a cause for the blast.'What a telling line that is - 'The spokesman, who requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue'
Meanwhile, on 2 August this year another Hamas "work accident" severely injured 58 Palestinians, including 14 children and 9 women, completely destroyed seven houses and damaged another 30. I can't say I noticed any coverage of this story on the BBC either.
No comments:
Post a Comment