Turns out the shells never hit the school, and nobody inside was hurt. The lie flew around the world 9 times while the truth barely got out of bed.
Keith Moon diaried this recently, and got HRed for speaking the inconvenient truth. Some commenters suggested that someone else, without Keith's notoriety, diary the same topic, preferably with more trustworthy sources. This is such an attempt.
Haaretz:
The United Nations has reversed its stance on one of the most contentious and bloody incidents of the recent Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza, saying that an IDF mortar strike that killed 43 people on January 6 did not hit one of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools after all.
It seems that the UN has been under pressure to put the record straight after doubts arose that the school had actually been targeted. Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem, said Monday that the IDF mortar shells fell in the street near the compound, and not on the compound itself.
It seems that the Gaza militants shot at IDF from the street near the school after all, according to two eye-witnesses. IDF fired back three shells, which all fell outside the school compound, and didn't kill anyone in the school, though a few people got wounded with shrapnel.
Militants were targeted
In addition, the defense officials said it was not certain that the number of casualties reported by the UN, 43, was accurate and that Military Intelligence had noticed Hamas attempts to cover up the identity of those killed in the strike.
"We know of at least three terrorists among the dead," one official said. "It is clear that there were more people killed but Hamas has been covering up their identities."
What I find particularly disturbing is that outside Israel, there is an amazing dearth of major media outlet which have reported this story. The lie was shouted from the rooftops, while the truth is whispered furtively.
I am also amazed by our very own kossacks, whose names I shall not mention but who are obvious, claiming that it doesn't matter that such an egregious lie was propagated -- people died, Israel is still guilty! There is of course a world of difference between shelling an innocent school and shelling a militant strike spot (how the hell did the palestinian militant installation got surrounded by dozens of civilians anyway?), but what's some truth between friends? And what about the fact that when this inconvenient truth got spoken, the hateful screeching arose -- "he is a troll anyway!" -- to drown it out, regardless of its veracity?
Yeah, I am bitter. I have been diarying this recently. Any regard for truth, facticity, or humanity seems to be superceded by the seething hatred of Israel among disturbingly broad segments of Kos and the left in general.
As the truth is slowly coming out, the screeching hatred seems to be slithering back into the shadows, wiggle by little wiggle; but the fact that it existed, in such depth and breadth, was a rather unpleasant revelation to me.
I am a liberal -- and also a jew, a zionist, and Israeli emigrant. I support palestinian independence and two-state solution, and I oppose settlements and AIPAC. And the very fact that I feel the need to list my 'good liberal jew' credentials, hurts me.
However, in the wake of this incident, I have made a resolution to myself: I will no longer trust any anti-Israeli reports until they are double- and triple-checked. It's not that Israel does no wrong -- it does -- but rather than so many such reports are brazen lies and outright fabrications: Al Durrah, Jenin, Gaza beach shelling, and now this...
The lies -- lies directed against Israel, systemically and without shame -- must be exposed and countered. The disregard for truth, the prejudice which hides in our very own ranks, is much harder to deal with.