Tuesday, August 01, 2006

What happened in Qana?

According to CNN, "Israel's Security Cabinet has approved an expansion of the ground campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon".

Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post is reporting that "Hizbullah's rocket launching capability [has been] significantly compromised by the fighting that [has taken] place in the past three weeks".

It's hard to know what to think anymore, nor what to believe.

There are even questions surrounding the Israeli attack on Qana that left at least 54 Lebanese dead -- among them 37 children. Human Rights Watch says that responsibility "rests squarely with the Israeli military," but the IDF isn't so sure, according to Haaretz:

There is an unexplained gap of about seven hours between the one Israeli air strike that hit the Qana building housing the civilians, which took place around 1 A.M. Sunday, and the first report that the building had collapsed, said the chief of staff of the Israel Air Force, Brigadier General Amir Eshel. Speaking at a press conference at the Kirya military complex in Tel Aviv last night, Eshel said that of three Israeli air strikes on Qana early Sunday, only the first strike hit the building in which the civilians were staying. The other two hit areas at least 400 meters away.

Indeed, "the building may have collapsed because the IAF bombing triggered a delayed explosion of weapons stored inside".

Not that you should necessarily believe the IDF. It has its own interests to defend. And as Maha of Mahablog puts it, this is still just "wild-ass speculation". Make of it what you will. I doubt we'll ever know the truth about what happened in Qana, but we should encourage an investigation nonetheless.

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