An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos found that the deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital Tuesday was likely caused by a rocket fired from inside Palestinian territory that veered off course and broke up in the air before crashing back to the ground.
Shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday, a volley of rockets lit up the darkened sky over Gaza. Videos analyzed by The Associated Press show one veering off course, breaking up in the air before crashing to the ground.
Seconds later, the videos show a large explosion in the same area – the site of Gaza’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
Who is to blame for the fiery explosion has set off intense debate and finger pointing between the Israeli government and Palestinian militants, further escalating tensions in their two week-long war.
The news media always engages in a race to be first, never a race to be right.
So when there's some horriffic event, just assume a lot of the first reporting is wrong. It's not done out of outright malice (in MOST cases), it's carelessness.
Or just pay attention to who the news is using as a source. When they write "Hamas says X" and "IDF says Y" they are not reporting wrong, they are just passing along who is saying what. You shouldn't think the news is picking sides u less it is obvious that they are leaving out a ton of context, like how western media is so focused on who fired the missile and not the other thousands of deaths around that one event.
But here’s the daily dose of skepticism warranted by the sheer amount of misinformation- both intentional propaganda and kneejerk reactionaries:
That the IDF might not normally use rockets or similar weapons…. Doesn’t mean they don’t have them (from captured stockpiles, for example,)
If asked, my answer is always going to be prefaced with… the only people who really knows for sure are the guys that launched it; and any one who says with certainty “it was XYZ!” Are probably best given an eyebrow raise.
Which. Does it really matter who did it, at this point? This attack barely moves the needle on civilian deaths caused by the Israeli bombardment… or Hamas or any other armed group.
IMO Any one who is not calling for a cease fire, or at least talks… is not on the right side here- and both the IDF and Hamas are on the wrong side.
So you’re going to talk about all the other civilians being slaughtered by IDF, right? You get, that’s my point, right? This conflict is killing innocents and it’s both sides killing innocents.
My point is that “it wasn’t Israeli forces that did this” doesn’t absolve Israeli forces from criticism or condemnation when they’re definitely killing civilians.
Which, leads to the second contention- that a cease fire won’t do anything…
what cease fores will do …it’ll stop the creation of more terrorists. Maybe create a road map to peace.
You have to start somewhere. You can’t just keep killing terrorists until there are no more terrorists; the US discovered that the hard way after 9/11;
And let’s be honest and truthful; as bad and awful as Hamas is, the oppression imposed created the environment for them to exist. Am enviroment doubled and tripled down by the people presently in control… and a party that intentionally sabotaged the peace to retain and gain power by indirectly supporting … Hamas.
what cease fores will do …it’ll stop the creation of more terrorists. Maybe create a road map to peace.
There have been several ceasefires in place between Hamas and Israel in the last 17 years since Hamas seized power in Gaza, and arguably none of them stopped the creation of new terrorists.
And let’s be honest and truthful; as bad and awful as Hamas is, the oppression imposed created the environment for them to exist.
Hamas is a terrorist organization that oppresses and murderes Palestinians. The first thing they did when Israel deoccupied Gaza was to seize power from Fatah, murder Fatah members, and suspend elections.
They purposefully murdered Israeli civilians when they could have targeted military targets. They purposefully place terrorist installations next to civilian places like hospitals, places of worship, etc. in the Gaza strip.
There's a lot of blame on Israel for propping up Hamas in a belief that they would be less violent than Fatah, but there's also a point where you have to admit that people who decide that they want to commit terrorism have some agency of their own, and that not even terrorist act committed by Hamas can be squarely blamed on Israel.
My point is that “it wasn’t Israeli forces that did this” doesn’t absolve Israeli forces from criticism or condemnation when they’re definitely killing civilians.
Shit happens in a war. Hamas shouldn't have started a war.
As to wanting a ceasefire, ask Hamas to surrender, and then the firing will cease.
My point is that “it wasn’t Israeli forces that did this” doesn’t absolve Israeli forces from criticism or condemnation when they’re definitely killing civilians.
Of course, I completely agree. But it is noteworthy if the damage is caused by an errant missile, because it underscores a very important point -- it isn't just Israel that's killing Palestinians. Hamas and affiliated groups are also killing Palestinians without a care. This conflict really needs to be separated from the Palestinian civilians, because the two warring parties are both killing them.
That's pretty clearly not the case. Netanyahu is a corrupt moron who didn't do enough to stop Hamas, but Hamas is ultimately responsible for their own actions, and those actions started this war.
multiple sources to just, you know.... make it obvious... Ol' Netty supported hamas to destabilize and fracture the PA- explicitly to avoid having a viable Palestinian state. Before Netty came to power in the 90's they were almost there. Likud, as a party has never been about peace since before the State of Israel was actually a thing.
Yes, it's entirely Hamas's fault, because they are adults, not children, and are responsible for their own actions. Criticism of Netanyahu for prior relationships his government had with Hamas is justifiable and reasonable, but at the end of the day, if someone breaks into a home and rapes and murders the inhabitants, they're responsible for what they did.
Sometimes, when you start a war and lose, things get worse for you. If the Palestinians focused on building their country up rather than starting wars intent on genicide, maybe they'd have decent living conditions by now.
The evidence available makes it pretty clear that the hospital was not /targeted/. That makes the incident a tragic accident, not a deliberate overt act -- regardless of who is ultimately responsible.
At the time of this event Israel had bombed 4 other hospitals. That doesn’t prove Israel did this, but it does address the ‘they would never do this’ argument.
Note what this event was actually - a barrage of rockets sent towards regular Israeli cities and towns with the intent of harming civilians. Not military bases, or IDF infrastructure. Add the fact that up to 20% of these missiles land on Gaza's territory, and their casualties are registered as caused by IDF.
They don't exactly "target" civilians in that they don't target anything because the rockets are too primitive.
And if we are taking the civilian deaths because these rockets as a deliberate act then we would logically have to do the same for every other actor in every other war that killed civilians because they didn't have guided munitions.
don't target anything because the rockets are too primitive.
So they're to be treated like "a bit dangerous fireworks"?
The fact they're primed and sent towards regular Israeli cities - shows that the intent is to kill as many people as possible.
The fact that Israeli civilian death count is much lower is only due to superior air alert and defense systems, otherwise the numbers would be much higher.
Nah it never does. People still think that Jesus existed. Just subscribe to whatever preconceived notions you want and gather evidence to support it. Only outrage is real.
I'm not sure how to break this to you... The first written record of Jesus doesn't appear until some 70 years after the date of his crucifixion. That's in the writings of Josephus, but the problem with Josephus is that the copy that survived is from the 4th century, which appears to have been edited by Eusebius, a Christian, inserting the mention of Jesus. Quotations of Josephus prior to Eusebius make no mention of Jesus. Good reading here:
We know people like Pontius Pilate existed because we have documents from the era talking to and about him. There's nothing remotely similar for Jesus.
I describe it like this, the story goes that Jesus was an amazing figure, speaking to the masses at the sermon on the mount, raising the dead, etc. Why is there no written record of him at the time? No letter from one person to another going "Hey, I just saw this Jesus guy and he's making a lot of sense!" No Roman records for arrest, trial or execution? And man, those Romans loved their documents.
A modern day equivalent would be having no written record of Elvis until some 70 years after he died, and the only surviving copy of that 70 year document being from another transcriber 400 years after he died. We would still be 24 years away from the first written record of Elvis.
It's amazing how a first century Jewish person would be expressing an idea of the Trinity that wouldn't come around for another two centuries and that of all his writings he only changed topics like this a single time. Also that people familiar with Christianity and his works just never mention this for 200-300 years.
Imagine a super popular book written in 1723 and only last week someone mentioned what might be the single most important passage. Incredible.
Hmm not seeing any contemporary records in the Wikipedia article, which I am sure you read, why don't you list specifically what record you are referring to?
I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make it drink.
The sources that do exist were shortly after Jesus' life, and they were not only consistent with each other, but from radically different sources, including Roman, Jewish, Christian, and even Muslim sources. It's pretty simple to check the sources against one another and see what lines up.
Scholars generally agree that someone named Jesus of Nazareth existed in Palestine in the 1st century AD. Is Jesus the Son of God? Depends on who you ask, but to say that he didn't exist at all is being willfully ignorant.
Instead of a lecture about why I should accept you on faith why not produce the contemporary records?
The sources that do exist were shortly after Jesus’ life
Oh like Paul who didn't see anything? Oh like the Mark Gospel written fifty years later, with no sources, on a different continent filled up with copy and pasted from Elijah? Oh you mean like Josephus (50 years after the supposed events) with two passages one a forgery and the other possibly talking about someone else? Oh you mean Tacticus who was a century later and related hearsay without consulting a single Roman record?
How about everyone else, how about the hundreds of letters we have from that area and time period that never once mention any of the events? How about people documenting Messiah figures during the first century not seeing anyone? How about the total lack of records of Nazareth even existing in that century, the entire Joseph family missing from records, all relics missing, the tomb missing, the trial records missing?
Now show me a CONTEMPORARY record not what some Muslim said in Saudi Arabia 9 centuries later.
I did. It seems your definition of "contemporary" is different from mine.
Whatever. No point in arguing with the atheist circlejerk; it's sad how the good points you have get ruined by your inability to do research and understand context.
Nope. Contemporary is not 90 years later by any definition. Me writing an article this week about fashion trends of 1923 should not be titled "contemporary fall fashion".
"Contemporary" is the period of time where there would be people living who had experienced these events, even if the historian him/herself hadn't lived to see them.
But the people supposedly writing about him were not Jesus' contemporaries. They would not have met him, or seen him, they were writing on behalf of what they say other people claim.
Gotcha since the oldest living person right now was born in 1907 that means that everything from March 3rd, 1907 and back is ancient while everything after that date gets squished together ad contemporary.
I am a contemporary of Gandhi, Mao, Dr. King, FDR, Stalin, Churchill, Reagan, Armstrong, Cumae, the Lindenberg baby, Thomss Edison, Einstein, and Aldrin.
I like how useless this definition you invented for yourself to "win" an internet argument is. Now if you excuse me I just got a notice of an important telegram, it seems that Kaiser is up to his old tricks again and if I don't help us land a man on the moon the Frye Festival will be a complete disaster. Here is a bitcoin for your trouble, you can use it to buy a piece of mutton with some New Coke.