A human rights organization with a long history of anti-Israel statements and behavior has been slow to admit that “the evidence points to [a] rocket misfire” by Palestinian terrorists that caused a Gaza hospital explosion last month — drew silence from far-left members of Congress who blamed the Jewish state for the explosion.
Human Rights Watch concluded Sunday that the Oct. 17 explosion at Arab al-Ahli Hospital “resulted from rocket-propelled munitions, such as those commonly used by Palestinian armed groups, that hit the hospital grounds.”
“Although mistakes happen frequently, further investigations are needed to determine who fired the rockets clearly and whether the laws of war were violated,” the organization said in a report released Sunday.
“Squad” Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) quickly blamed the Israel Defense Forces for the hospital explosion, citing the death toll shared by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry and demanding a cease-fire.
A human rights organization with a long history of anti-Israel statements and behavior has been slow to admit that “the evidence points to [a] misfiring of a rocket” caused the explosion of a Gaza hospital. Telegram The report drew silence from far-left members of Congress who blamed the Jewish state for the explosion as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). AFP via Getty Images
Israeli and US intelligence later determined that a rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group linked to Hamas, had missed and hit a Gaza City hospital, killing between 100 and 300.
President Biden was reportedly angered by the New York Times’ coverage of the incident, which held Israel responsible for the explosion and uncritically reported an estimated death toll of 500.
Umar and Tlaib never taken down their broadcast on X blaming Israel for the explosion or repeating the inflated death toll, instead choosing to issue statements that cast doubt on US and Israeli assessments.
President Biden was angered by the New York Times’ coverage of the incident, which held Israel responsible for the explosion and uncritically reported the death toll at 500. REUTERS
“It’s a reminder that information is often unreliable and disputed in the fog of war (especially on Twitter where misinformation is rampant),” Omar said a day after the explosion.
“It is imperative that we have a fully independent investigation to determine definitively who is responsible for these war crimes.”
Tlaib in a subsequent statement also called for an independent investigation.
“Squad” Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) unsuccessfully defended Tlaib from House censure for his anti-Israel remarks. AFP via Getty Images
“Both the governments of Israel and the United States have long documented histories of misleading the public about wars and war crimes—such as last year’s Israeli military killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and the false claims about weapons of mass destruction that led our country into the Iraq War. —and cannot absolve themselves of responsibility without an independent international investigation,” he said.
Comrades “Squad” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) too using inflated death tolls to call for a ceasefire.
None of the three responded Monday to The Post’s request for comment on the Human Rights Watch report.
Friend of the “Squad” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) also used the rising death toll to call for a ceasefire. AFP via Getty Images
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who failed to defend Tlaib from House censure after he called for Israel’s destruction, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Human Rights Watch has asked the United Nations Commission of Inquiry to also investigate the cause of the hospital explosion, saying it “cannot support” the death toll.
“The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that 471 people were killed and 342 injured,” the report said. “Human Rights Watch cannot support the count, which is significantly higher than other estimates, displays an unusually high killed-to-wounded ratio, and appears disproportionate to the damage visible on the site.”
The human rights group has already shared the death toll reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health as fact in the hours after the explosion. Anadolu via Getty Images
But the human rights group has already shared the death toll reported by the Gaza Health Ministry as fact in the hours after the explosion.
“The attack on al-Ahli hospital, also known as al-Moamadani, in central Gaza has killed at least 500 people,” the group said in post on the permanent X.
Reps for Human Rights Watch did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The group also found that “Gaza authorities appear to have remnants that will help make a definitive determination of the projectile that exploded at al-Ahli hospital” – after initially lying that the projectile had “evaporated” and then promising more than a month ago in comments to the Washington Post that the waste “will soon be shown to the world.”
Senior Hamas official Bassam Naim in response to questions posed by Human Rights Watch claimed Israel was responsible. Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Tech/AFP via Getty Images
“[T]the sound prior to the explosion, the fireball that accompanied it, the size of the resulting crater, the type of sparks adjacent to it, and the type and pattern of debris seen around the crater were all consistent with a rocket impact,” Human Rights. Watch said in its report.
Using photos, videos, satellite images, independent analysis and interviews with five witnesses, the group concluded: “The evidence available to Human Rights Watch makes the possibility of large air-dropped bombs, such as those widely used by Israel in Gaza, highly unlikely. impossible. .”
Senior Hamas official Bassam Naim, in response to questions posed by Human Rights Watch, claimed that Israel was responsible and that “no Palestinian opposition faction – to our knowledge – has among its weapons ammunition or rockets of destructive power capable of killing large numbers of people.”
Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch appointed a new director who began his tenure by denouncing the Israeli government for committing a “domestic human rights rampage against its own people.”
The director, Tirana Hassan, also claimed that the Israeli government “did not provide evidence justifying the mass evacuation of patients and doctors and the closing of hospitals that were already overwhelmed” in Gaza during the war.
The claims were made despite numerous reports – including eyewitness accounts from prisoners – describing how Hamas had embedded itself among the civilian population at the hospital.
Fred Baumann, a professor of political science at Kenyon College, told The Post that Human Rights Watch has shown “the usual anti-Israel outrage” and “is among those who buy Hamas’s lies about” the incident.
“[It] blaming Israel for the attack on the medical facility but not mentioning that it is now sufficiently proven that Hamas deliberately hides its fighters and weapons under it, a gross violation of the laws of war,” he said.
“In short, the report strikes me as a shameful mixture of having been arrested for repeating Hamas lies, and continued malice against Israel.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
