@Setanta,
There is not really enough information (at least not without paying for the article) to determine the truth of the matter.
From what little information the article provides for free, it seems possible that the women in question were terrorists.
Due to the scarcity of information, the possibility that the entire event is fictitious also cannot be ruled out.
However, even if we make a wild assumption that the event happened, and then make a second wild assumption that those women were innocent bystanders, the article is very clear that the Israelis were firing in self defense. Even if we make those two wild assumptions, this would not be evidence of Israel targeting women, children, or the elderly. It would just be an unfortunate case of collateral damage caused by the need to defend against Palestinian aggression.
As always, targeting innocent civilians is a Muslim thing.
Also, even if this were proven to be collateral damage, a single death is far from that figure of thousands you mentioned earlier.
Setanta wrote:Quote:Amnesty International's report into the 2008 Gaza War stated that they had found instances in which the IDF endangered the lives of civilians, including children, by using them as human shields. The report discussed examples such as "forcing them to remain in or near houses which they took over and used as military positions. Some were forced to carry out dangerous tasks such as inspecting properties or objects suspected of being booby-trapped." The Israeli military denied the allegations saying "The IDF operated in accordance with the rules of war and did the utmost to minimize harm to civilians uninvolved in combat. The IDF's use of weapons conforms to international law." Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs likewise accused Hamas and other militant groups of using children human shields during the Gaza war.
Source
From the same source:
Quote:It has been reported that adult settlers harass and attack Palestinian families and even children. According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers Israeli settlers often use children to violently harass Palestinian civilians, including through looting mosques and shops. The Palestinian National Authority accuses the Israeli government of condoning attacks and the IDF of protecting the culpable settlers and foreign observers repeatedly have called for more government action against them. In October 2011 Richard A. Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967", said that “The failure to prevent and punish settler violence remains a serious and ongoing violation of Israel’s fundamental legal obligation to protect the civilian population.”
Glancing over what you quoted, I did not see a single thing about any Palestinian deaths.
Setanta wrote:I got more than 22 million hits on a search criterion of "Palestinian women and children killed."
Maybe so, but none of the links will be truthful.
Setanta wrote:I selected sources to post here which you may deride, but i don't really care, because they are reputable sources,
I'm not sure I deride them. More that I note they do absolutely nothing to back up your claims.
At the most, you've established that a single woman was killed in an action where Israel was completely justified.
But the article that "established" that was pretty vague about the matter.
Setanta wrote:and those three citations are three more pieces of evidence than you have provided.
Not really. Not one of the three could be considered evidence that Israel has killed as many women, children, and elderly as you suggested earlier.
Setanta wrote:That's not hard, though, because you never provide evidence, you just shoot your mouth off, apparently believing that everyone should consider you an unimpeachable authority.
Nonsense. I'm always happy to provide evidence whenever I make a factual claim.
I suppose there is one particular claim where I don't know of any on-line links to back it up, and in that one case I might have to refer people to a book. But that claim is not related to this subject, so it shouldn't be a problem here.
