Al-Fakhura school incident
Encyclopedia
The al-Fakhura School incident refers to events that took place nearby a United Nations
run school of al-Fakhura located in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip
on January 6, 2009 during the Gaza War. In response to alleged militant gunfire coming from beside the school, the IDF fired upon the targets that the UN
and several NGOs say killed 42, 41 of them civilians, and that according to the IDF killed 9 Hamas
militants and 3 noncombatants. In April 2009, PCHR listed 12 people as killed "near" the school and another 8 "opposite" the school. Several people listed as civilians in the PCHR report are claimed by Hamas as its fighters according to Israeli think tank ICT
. In the last week of January, the UN explicitly clarified that no deaths occurred within the building itself and that the rounds struck the street outside the school. A "clerical error" in UN reports had previously stated otherwise.
Several news reports initially stated that the attack directly hit the school itself, and that the victims had taken refuge there to escape the fighting between the IDF and Palestinian militants. The response, before it was learned that the school itself was not attacked, lead to a renewed push for a cease-fire in the Gaza War. The attack had created a public outcry and prompted condemnation from Secretary General of the United Nations
Ban Ki Moon, members of the news media, and international aid agencies. Numerous testimonies from local residents confirmed later that militants fired mortars from a location close to the school compound and that there were no fatalities inside the school.
, in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza
, seeking refuge from fighting between Israeli and Hamas
militants. The UNRWA later claimed that as many as 1,300 people were present at the school compound, a New York Times story quoted them at exactly 1,674 people. Most of those present came from northern Gaza
near Beit Lahiya and had been ordered to leave there for their own safety by the IDF. Two Israeli tanks fired shells which exploded outside the school, spraying shrapnel
on people inside and outside the building.
According to Hamas, over forty died in the incident. According to the IDF twelve people died, all outside of the school, nine of which were Hamas militants.
Initial reports varied. The Guardian
stated that, while the school itself was targeted, the majority of those killed were not in the school itself but had been in the playground and in the nearby street. The Associated Press
also stated that the attack occurred "outside" or "near" the school, not on the school itself, and listed 12 or fewer casualties. Other reports stated that over forty people within the actual school were killed in the attack. An estimated 55 people were injured. According to The Daily Mail, the nearby hospital was quickly overwhelmed and several injured victims were left in the street.
Hanan Abu Khajib said that Hamas militants fired just outside the school compound, likely from the secluded courtyard of a house across the street some 25 yards from the school, and that Israeli return fire minutes later landed outside the school along its southwest wall, killing two Hamas fighters. Two unnamed residents, who spoke to an Associated Press
reporter by phone on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said a group of militants had been firing mortar shells rounds from a street close to the school. Jonathan Miller wrote in a Channel 4
story that "local residents in the street told me that militants had been firing rockets - as the IDF claimed - and having been targeted in retaliatory fire by the IDF, they ran down the street past the school." Residents of the neighborhood said two brothers who were Hamas fighters were in the area at the time of the attack. The Israeli military identified the brothers as Imad Abu Asker and Hassan Abu Asker, and said they had been killed. Residents also said that the mortar fire had not come from the school compound, but from elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Shadi Abu Shanar who worked as a guard at the school was inside the gate of the school when the attack took place: "Suddenly I heard a number of explosions at the gate. I went out onto the street and found dead bodies and wounded people lying on the ground. Most of them were cut into pieces. The street was full of people. I was about to pass out because of what I saw. The shells landed in a range of 20 to 40 meters around the school. The school was full of people."
A UN Board of Inquiry found that there was no firing from within the school and no explosives within the school. The Board could not establish with certainty whether there had been any firing from the vicinity of the school. Four witness statements collected by Defence for Children International
-Palestine section indicate that the area was quiet, and that adults and children were going about their daily business.
militants were firing mortar shells from the school just moments before the strike The IDF stated that a number of Hamas gunmen were inside the school, among them Imad and Hassan Abu-Askar, who are known to the IDF as Hamas rocket-launching operatives, and claimed to have found their bodies following the attack. Israeli defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school had triggered secondary explosions that killed additional Palestinians there. The IDF has released footage of militants launching rockets from a UNRWA school in a different incident in 2007 to support its account. Israeli army Spokeswoman Avital Leibovich claimed that a mortar had been fired from the school, and that Israeli forces responded with one mortar shell. She stated, "Let me be clear–I am not apologizing," in relation to the bombing of the school.
Yigal Palmer Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson later clarified that he "know(s) for a fact that a Hamas squad was firing mortar shells from the immediate vicinity of the school... Hamas
mortar squad was sticking with their back to the school wall... The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) responded to that fire, and the tragic result was what we all know." Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as "human shields" by launching rockets from near the school and then fleeing into a crowd.
According to Haaretz
, a preliminary investigation conducted by the Paratroopers Brigade whose troops were responsible for the area, found that the army's location system to pinpoint launch sites indicated that Hamas
militants had launched a Qassam
rocket into Israel from within a yard adjacent to the courtyard of the UN building. The troops had intended to launch a smart missile to take out the Palestinian launch team but a technical malfunction made this impossible. The commanders of the force instead decided to fire on the Qassam team with mortar
shells equipped with a Global Positioning System
for accurate fire. However, the GPS element has an error margin of 30 meters and one of the three rounds fired by the paratrooper force hit the UNRWA building. Two of the rounds hit the yard used to launch rockets into Israel, killing two members of Hamas' military wing who probably belonged to the squad that fired the rockets. According to Haaretz
, some IDF officers say the force should have refrained from using mortar rounds and relied instead on more accurate fire. Haaretz
quotes senior IDF officers saying that the death toll published by Hamas is "grossly exaggerated", and that Hamas is inflating the number of casualties.
On February 15, 2009, The Jerusalem Post
published the IDF account of the Palestinian fatalities in the incident. According to the IDF Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), 12 Palestinians were killed in the incident - 9 Hamas operatives and 3 noncombatants. The CLA also stated that the IDF was returning fire after coming under attack, that its shells did not hit the school compound, and that this has been acknowledged by the UN. Colonel
Moshe Levi, head of the CLA said that: "From the beginning, Hamas claimed that 42 people were killed, but we could see from our surveillance that only a few stretchers were brought in to evacuate people".
The Jerusalem Post from February 29, 2009 quotes CLA officials stating that on the day of the incident officers from the CLA contacted the Palestinian Health Ministry and were told that 3 Palestinian civilians had been killed and that Hamas was hiding the identities of the remaining casualties.
On April 22, 2009, the IDF publicly announced the results of its internal investigation on Operation Cast Lead. The report found that Hamas had fired mortar shells at a position 80 meters from the school and that the IDF used "minimal and proportionate retaliatory fire" afterward. It also concluded that the IDF "did not, at any time, fire with the deliberate intention to hit a UN vehicle or facility" at any point in the conflict.
militants had used the school to attack Israeli forces were "baseless".
The reactions of local residents varied. Abdel Minaim Hasan who lost his eldest daughter, Lina, 11, was weeping by her body which was wrapped in a Hamas flag in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The New York Times reported that he cried out: "From now on I am Hamas! ... I choose resistance!" He also cursed at the Arab nations for ignoring the plight of the Gazans, shouting, "The Arabs are doing nothing to protect us!" Huda Deed who lost nine members of her extended family, ages 3 to 25, was also weeping and standing before the bodies of the dead remarked, "Look, they’ve lined them up like a ruler!" When asked for an interview by Al-Aqsa TV
, the Hamas channel, she refused. Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official who emerged from hiding to attend the funeral, commended the dead and called them martyrs. According to the New York Times, some parents greeted him by shaking his hand while others stared at him coldly.
, Director of UNRWA operations in Gaza was quoted by The Guardian as saying that three shells had landed "at the perimeter of the school". Another branch of the UN, its humanitarian affairs agency (OCHA
) also reported in its daily output of 6 January that the missile strikes had been outside the school. In its report of the following day, however, it said the school itself had been shelled. Three weeks later, this error was corrected by Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian coordinator, who stated that the UN "would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school. As a result, several news agencies claimed that the UN had backtracked from its original claim that the strike had hit the school Abraham Rabinovich of The Australian also criticized John Ging and other UN officials claiming they did not "dispel widespread suspicions" and that one of Ging's statement implied the school was hit directly. Christopher Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman, called Rabinovich's article "grossly misleading" and " inaccurate". He pointed out that Ging's statement, which formed the basis for Rabinovitch's argument, was actually in regards to the confirmed attack on another school in which three people were killed, and was made before the Al-Fakhura school incident occurred. The organization also argued that they initially reported that the attack happened outside of Al-Fakhura while Israelis authorities reported that they were firing back at militants in the school, and then later reported that they were responding to militants near the school rather in the school itself.
Israeli Government report published in July 2009 state that the UN Board of Inquiry did not examine whether laws of armed conflict were violated in this incident. The report quotes the findings of the Board:
The UNHRC fact-finding mission in its report from September 2009 criticized IDF for the choice of the weapons for the supposed counterstrike and concluded that the IDF fire at the Al-Fakhura street violated the law of proportionality. Researcher from JCPA
stated that examination of freely accessible Palestinian sources shows that one of the key witnesses of the fact-finding committee on the incident was directly linked to the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades and that contrary to the claims, there were Palestinian operatives in the Al-Fakhura school area. He also stressed that at least 6 militants were killed in the incident. On the contrary, Hamas officials stated that among 35 people supposedly killed in the incident, no fighters were registered among the casualties.
In the initial response to the UNHRC fact-finding mission report, Israeli Government replied that the committee findings reflect the oversimplistic approach to complex military challenges during the fighting, implying that the mission members did not possess the information that was known to the force's commander at the time of the attack regarding the immediate threat, weapon's availability and potential risks to civilians.
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
run school of al-Fakhura located in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
on January 6, 2009 during the Gaza War. In response to alleged militant gunfire coming from beside the school, the IDF fired upon the targets that the UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and several NGOs say killed 42, 41 of them civilians, and that according to the IDF killed 9 Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
militants and 3 noncombatants. In April 2009, PCHR listed 12 people as killed "near" the school and another 8 "opposite" the school. Several people listed as civilians in the PCHR report are claimed by Hamas as its fighters according to Israeli think tank ICT
International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism
The International Institute for Counter-Terrorism is a non-profit organization located at the Interdisciplinary Center , Herzliya, Israel. The ICT was founded in 1996 and describes itself as "the leading academic institute for counter-terrorism in the world, facilitating international cooperation...
. In the last week of January, the UN explicitly clarified that no deaths occurred within the building itself and that the rounds struck the street outside the school. A "clerical error" in UN reports had previously stated otherwise.
Several news reports initially stated that the attack directly hit the school itself, and that the victims had taken refuge there to escape the fighting between the IDF and Palestinian militants. The response, before it was learned that the school itself was not attacked, lead to a renewed push for a cease-fire in the Gaza War. The attack had created a public outcry and prompted condemnation from Secretary General of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Ban Ki Moon, members of the news media, and international aid agencies. Numerous testimonies from local residents confirmed later that militants fired mortars from a location close to the school compound and that there were no fatalities inside the school.
Incident description
On January 6, 2009, at least 350 Palestinians were in the al-Fakhura school run by UNRWAUnited Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a relief and human development agency, providing education, health care, social services and emergency aid to 5 million Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in the West Bank and the Gaza...
, in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
, seeking refuge from fighting between Israeli and Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
militants. The UNRWA later claimed that as many as 1,300 people were present at the school compound, a New York Times story quoted them at exactly 1,674 people. Most of those present came from northern Gaza
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
near Beit Lahiya and had been ordered to leave there for their own safety by the IDF. Two Israeli tanks fired shells which exploded outside the school, spraying shrapnel
Fragmentation (weaponry)
Fragmentation is the process by which the casing of an artillery shell, bomb, grenade, etc. is shattered by the detonating high explosive filling. The correct technical terminology for these casing pieces is fragments , although shards or splinters can be used for non-preformed fragments...
on people inside and outside the building.
According to Hamas, over forty died in the incident. According to the IDF twelve people died, all outside of the school, nine of which were Hamas militants.
Initial reports varied. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
stated that, while the school itself was targeted, the majority of those killed were not in the school itself but had been in the playground and in the nearby street. The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
also stated that the attack occurred "outside" or "near" the school, not on the school itself, and listed 12 or fewer casualties. Other reports stated that over forty people within the actual school were killed in the attack. An estimated 55 people were injured. According to The Daily Mail, the nearby hospital was quickly overwhelmed and several injured victims were left in the street.
Eyewitness accounts
According to Mouin Gasser, a 45-year-old teacher, the area around the school was hit four times in about two minutes by the shells that landed just outside the school; much shrapnel spread everywhere and hit the people inside the school. Mr Gasser said that he did not see any militants in the area. The Daily Mail quoted an eyewitness stating that he saw the marks from five separate explosions.Hanan Abu Khajib said that Hamas militants fired just outside the school compound, likely from the secluded courtyard of a house across the street some 25 yards from the school, and that Israeli return fire minutes later landed outside the school along its southwest wall, killing two Hamas fighters. Two unnamed residents, who spoke to an Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reporter by phone on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said a group of militants had been firing mortar shells rounds from a street close to the school. Jonathan Miller wrote in a Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
story that "local residents in the street told me that militants had been firing rockets - as the IDF claimed - and having been targeted in retaliatory fire by the IDF, they ran down the street past the school." Residents of the neighborhood said two brothers who were Hamas fighters were in the area at the time of the attack. The Israeli military identified the brothers as Imad Abu Asker and Hassan Abu Asker, and said they had been killed. Residents also said that the mortar fire had not come from the school compound, but from elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Shadi Abu Shanar who worked as a guard at the school was inside the gate of the school when the attack took place: "Suddenly I heard a number of explosions at the gate. I went out onto the street and found dead bodies and wounded people lying on the ground. Most of them were cut into pieces. The street was full of people. I was about to pass out because of what I saw. The shells landed in a range of 20 to 40 meters around the school. The school was full of people."
A UN Board of Inquiry found that there was no firing from within the school and no explosives within the school. The Board could not establish with certainty whether there had been any firing from the vicinity of the school. Four witness statements collected by Defence for Children International
Defence for Children International
Defence for Children International is an independent non-governmental organisation set up during the International Year of the Child to ensure on-going, practical, systematic and concerted international and national action specially directed towards promoting and protecting the rights of the...
-Palestine section indicate that the area was quiet, and that adults and children were going about their daily business.
Israel
The IDF originally claimed that Hamas militants were inside the school. The Israeli army stated that HamasHamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
militants were firing mortar shells from the school just moments before the strike The IDF stated that a number of Hamas gunmen were inside the school, among them Imad and Hassan Abu-Askar, who are known to the IDF as Hamas rocket-launching operatives, and claimed to have found their bodies following the attack. Israeli defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school had triggered secondary explosions that killed additional Palestinians there. The IDF has released footage of militants launching rockets from a UNRWA school in a different incident in 2007 to support its account. Israeli army Spokeswoman Avital Leibovich claimed that a mortar had been fired from the school, and that Israeli forces responded with one mortar shell. She stated, "Let me be clear–I am not apologizing," in relation to the bombing of the school.
Yigal Palmer Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson later clarified that he "know(s) for a fact that a Hamas squad was firing mortar shells from the immediate vicinity of the school... Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
mortar squad was sticking with their back to the school wall... The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) responded to that fire, and the tragic result was what we all know." Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as "human shields" by launching rockets from near the school and then fleeing into a crowd.
According to Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
, a preliminary investigation conducted by the Paratroopers Brigade whose troops were responsible for the area, found that the army's location system to pinpoint launch sites indicated that Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
militants had launched a Qassam
Qassam
Qassam may refer to:*Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, an influential Islamist preacher*Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas*Qassam rocket, a type of rocket used by the military wing of Hamas against Israel...
rocket into Israel from within a yard adjacent to the courtyard of the UN building. The troops had intended to launch a smart missile to take out the Palestinian launch team but a technical malfunction made this impossible. The commanders of the force instead decided to fire on the Qassam team with mortar
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
shells equipped with a Global Positioning System
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
for accurate fire. However, the GPS element has an error margin of 30 meters and one of the three rounds fired by the paratrooper force hit the UNRWA building. Two of the rounds hit the yard used to launch rockets into Israel, killing two members of Hamas' military wing who probably belonged to the squad that fired the rockets. According to Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
, some IDF officers say the force should have refrained from using mortar rounds and relied instead on more accurate fire. Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
quotes senior IDF officers saying that the death toll published by Hamas is "grossly exaggerated", and that Hamas is inflating the number of casualties.
On February 15, 2009, The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
published the IDF account of the Palestinian fatalities in the incident. According to the IDF Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), 12 Palestinians were killed in the incident - 9 Hamas operatives and 3 noncombatants. The CLA also stated that the IDF was returning fire after coming under attack, that its shells did not hit the school compound, and that this has been acknowledged by the UN. Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Moshe Levi, head of the CLA said that: "From the beginning, Hamas claimed that 42 people were killed, but we could see from our surveillance that only a few stretchers were brought in to evacuate people".
The Jerusalem Post from February 29, 2009 quotes CLA officials stating that on the day of the incident officers from the CLA contacted the Palestinian Health Ministry and were told that 3 Palestinian civilians had been killed and that Hamas was hiding the identities of the remaining casualties.
On April 22, 2009, the IDF publicly announced the results of its internal investigation on Operation Cast Lead. The report found that Hamas had fired mortar shells at a position 80 meters from the school and that the IDF used "minimal and proportionate retaliatory fire" afterward. It also concluded that the IDF "did not, at any time, fire with the deliberate intention to hit a UN vehicle or facility" at any point in the conflict.
Palestinian
Fauzi Barhoun, a Hamas spokesman, said initial allegations that HamasHamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
militants had used the school to attack Israeli forces were "baseless".
The reactions of local residents varied. Abdel Minaim Hasan who lost his eldest daughter, Lina, 11, was weeping by her body which was wrapped in a Hamas flag in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The New York Times reported that he cried out: "From now on I am Hamas! ... I choose resistance!" He also cursed at the Arab nations for ignoring the plight of the Gazans, shouting, "The Arabs are doing nothing to protect us!" Huda Deed who lost nine members of her extended family, ages 3 to 25, was also weeping and standing before the bodies of the dead remarked, "Look, they’ve lined them up like a ruler!" When asked for an interview by Al-Aqsa TV
Al-Aqsa TV
Al-Aqsa TV is the official Hamas-run television channel. Its programming includes news talk, children's shows , and religiously inspired entertainment...
, the Hamas channel, she refused. Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official who emerged from hiding to attend the funeral, commended the dead and called them martyrs. According to the New York Times, some parents greeted him by shaking his hand while others stared at him coldly.
United Nations
The UN originally said that the shelling took place outside the school. John GingJohn Ging
John Ging is an Irish national and former officer in the Irish Army who has served as head of the United Nation's Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip since 2006...
, Director of UNRWA operations in Gaza was quoted by The Guardian as saying that three shells had landed "at the perimeter of the school". Another branch of the UN, its humanitarian affairs agency (OCHA
Ocha
Ocha is a genus of moth in the family Lasiocampidae....
) also reported in its daily output of 6 January that the missile strikes had been outside the school. In its report of the following day, however, it said the school itself had been shelled. Three weeks later, this error was corrected by Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian coordinator, who stated that the UN "would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school. As a result, several news agencies claimed that the UN had backtracked from its original claim that the strike had hit the school Abraham Rabinovich of The Australian also criticized John Ging and other UN officials claiming they did not "dispel widespread suspicions" and that one of Ging's statement implied the school was hit directly. Christopher Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman, called Rabinovich's article "grossly misleading" and " inaccurate". He pointed out that Ging's statement, which formed the basis for Rabinovitch's argument, was actually in regards to the confirmed attack on another school in which three people were killed, and was made before the Al-Fakhura school incident occurred. The organization also argued that they initially reported that the attack happened outside of Al-Fakhura while Israelis authorities reported that they were firing back at militants in the school, and then later reported that they were responding to militants near the school rather in the school itself.
Israeli Government report published in July 2009 state that the UN Board of Inquiry did not examine whether laws of armed conflict were violated in this incident. The report quotes the findings of the Board:
[the Board was] unable to reach any conclusion whether or not mortars were being fired and directed against the IDF from near to the school...[the Board] was not in a position to assess whether [more precise] means of response was available to the IDF at the time and, if it was not, the length and consequences of any delay until it might have become available.
The UNHRC fact-finding mission in its report from September 2009 criticized IDF for the choice of the weapons for the supposed counterstrike and concluded that the IDF fire at the Al-Fakhura street violated the law of proportionality. Researcher from JCPA
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
stated that examination of freely accessible Palestinian sources shows that one of the key witnesses of the fact-finding committee on the incident was directly linked to the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades and that contrary to the claims, there were Palestinian operatives in the Al-Fakhura school area. He also stressed that at least 6 militants were killed in the incident. On the contrary, Hamas officials stated that among 35 people supposedly killed in the incident, no fighters were registered among the casualties.
In the initial response to the UNHRC fact-finding mission report, Israeli Government replied that the committee findings reflect the oversimplistic approach to complex military challenges during the fighting, implying that the mission members did not possess the information that was known to the force's commander at the time of the attack regarding the immediate threat, weapon's availability and potential risks to civilians.
Statements
- Secretary General of the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Ban Ki Moon condemned the attack, calling it "totally unacceptable".
- Bush administrationGeorge W. Bush administrationThe presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
Press SecretaryWhite House Press SecretaryThe White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....
Dana PerinoDana PerinoDana Maria Perino is an American political commentator for Fox News. She served as the White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush from September 14, 2007 to January 20, 2009...
stated just after the incident that “I saw the reports about the school. I don’t have any information about that. I think that we should not jump to conclusions and we should wait to find out what the evidence says... What we do know is that Hamas often hides amongst innocents and uses innocent people, including children, as human shields."
- The incident prompted President-elect Barack ObamaBarack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
to break his silence over the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflictThe Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...
, saying that "[t]he loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern for me".
- BritishBritish peopleThe British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
Prime Minister Gordon BrownGordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
said that the incident and the fighting preceding it represents "the darkest moment yet for the Middle East".
- The British Foreign MinisterSecretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth AffairsThe Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...
David MilibandDavid MilibandDavid Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...
said, "I've just landed in New York and been told of the terrible, shocking news of 30 further civilian deaths in a UN school. I think that this devastating news underlines the need for the immediate ceasefire that the prime minister and I have been calling for."
Media
- According to Ynet News, "Global news agencies have decried the Israel Defense Forces strike".
- The Daily Mail referred to the incident as "Gaza's darkest day"
- Yahoo News and The Daily Mail quote AP Photographer Majed Hamdan saying: 'I saw parents slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead".
- The New York Times, Al-Jazeera, and the San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
linked the attack on al-Fakhura school with a possible cease-fire or withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. In an analysis of IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i media strategy in the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflictThe Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...
, the New York Times and San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
compared the killing of the civilians at al-Fakhura to the 1996 shelling of Qana1996 shelling of QanaThe 1996 shelling of Qana or the First Qana massacre, took place on April 18, 1996 near Qana, a village in Southern Lebanon, when artillery shells fired by the Israeli Defence Force hit a United Nations compound. Of 800 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge in the compound, 106 were killed and...
and the Qana airstrike in LebanonLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. The New York Times described these three events as "sudden events that can throw off so many careful calculations and come to symbolize the horrors of war". The New York Times said that the al-Fakhura killings "will inevitably turn stomachs all over the world and increase pressure on Israel for an early cease-fire". Al JazeeraAl JazeeraAl Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
said that the event has already caused "mounting pressure [on Israel] to agree a ceasefire". The San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
said that "the clock might start ticking for Israel to withdraw its troops."
See also
- Children and minors in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- International law and the Arab-Israeli conflictInternational law and the Arab-Israeli conflictThere is a broad international consensus that the actions of the nations involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict violate prohibitions contained in international law. However, this legality is disputed by some of the nations involved...
- Media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflictMedia coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflictMedia coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict refers to the reporting of the Arab–Israeli conflict by journalists in international news media.Media coverage of the conflict has been dogged by allegations of bias on both sides...
- United Nations and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict