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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| IDF: Qana building fell hours after strike |
| 2006-07-31 |
| Click on the title to follow the link to the full article if you want to view the videos and other links, but in any case check out my hopefully not nutcase theory highlighted below. (VIDEO) IDF continuing to check difficult incident at Qana village, and attempting to account for strange gap between time of the strike on the building – midnight – and eight in the morning, when the building collapsed - Hanan Greenberg VIDEO - An IDF investigation has found that the building in Qana struck by the Air Force fell around eight hours after being hit by the IDF. "The attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear," Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of the Air Force Headquarters told journalists at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, following the incidents at Qana. Rockets being fired from Qana village (Video: IDF Spokesperson Unit) Eshel and the head of the IDF's Operational Branch, Major General Gadi Eisnkot said the structure was not being attacked when it collapsed, at around 8:00 in the morning. The IDF believes that Hizbullah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse. Another possibility is that the rickety building remained standing for a few hours, but eventually collapsed. "It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there, Brigadier General Eshel said. Rescue operations in Qana (Photo: Reuters) "I'm saying this very carefully, because at this time I don't have a clue as to what the explanation could be for this gap," he added. Meanwhile in Lebanon it is being reported that the number of those killed in the collapse of the structure climbed to 60. My ideas: The building didn't look all that damaged and people reentered it either to go about their lives or because they wanted to use it for shelter against the nearby attacks. Two things could have then happened: 1) Nearby attacks may have collapsed the already weakened buiding. 2) Hezb'Allah collapsed the building once people were inside. Under normal circumstances, there should have been witnesses who would have seen any obvious activity by Hezb'Allah to collapse the building. In this case, people may have been too busy sheltering, or Hezb'Allah pre-wired the building before firing rockets from nearby hoping for just such an incident to develop. Any demolition explosions could be accounted for in the minds of residents by blaming Israeli bombing. In any case, if witnesses said an explosion coincided with the collapse of the building at a time other than when the IAF was dropping bombs, that may well explain the whole thing as a Hezb'Allah setup. If there was an Israeli attack just 30 minutes prior to the building collapsing, the timing would be about right for Hezb'Allah to pull this off. Even if people wanted to leave the building, they could just tell them to stay inside a little longer because another attack was imminent, then level the building. Or it could be that Israel just bombed the building with a bunch of civilians inside. In both cases, residents must have been aware of the rockets firing from behind the building. Not much sympathy for Hezb'Allah or the locals if this is the case. I haven't yet seen much in the way of the details on how this unfolded, but it will be interesting if it fits the theory that Hezb'Allah dunnit. Please post details that could confirm or deny this! This could be devastating to Hezb'Allah if seems that they did it. All targets struck accurately Eshel said that an additional attack took place at 7:30 in the morning, but added that other buildings were targeted. "This was an attack on three buildings 460 meters away from the structure we are talking about. Four bombs were dropped and all of them are documented by the planes' cameras. They all struck their targets. In addition, we carried out a filming sortie that photographed the village during the afternoon showing that the three targeted buildings we struck. We have verification of strikes on the building and that the bombs reached their targets," Eshel said. "An attack that took place at two in the morning struck two targets, both of them 400 meters away from the building (that collapsed). They were also destroyed. The attack between 12 and 1 a.m. struck the area of the affected house, and there were accurate strikes on the target. We are asking the question – what happened between 1 in the morning and 8 in the morning… we understand this building was attacked between 12 and 1 in the morning, seven hours before it was seriously damaged," he said. Brigadier General Eshel explained that "since the start of fighting in Lebanon 150 rockets from a very high number of rocket launchers have been fired from the village and its surrounding areas, at a number of sites in the State of Israel. Within the village itself we have located a diverse range of activities connected to firing of rockets, beginning from forces commanding this operation – because such an operation needs ongoing command to direct it – and logistical sites that serve this end." "From this village rockets are fired almost every day across Israel. The operation carried out overnight is an extension of operations that didn't start last night but before, and during this night we struck a number of targets in the village. All of the targets are being meticulously sifted," Eshel added. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #14 Be interesting to do an explosive residue analysis of the building. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-07-31 23:47 |
| #13 But by then it will be way too late to make a difference. The MSM, the UN etc. have already bought this hook line and sinker, because it's what they want to believe. Even if there were conclusive proof it was faked, not only would they not retract what they have said, they would carry on saying, because for them belief is more important than facts or the truth, and they believe Israel is culpable. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-07-31 20:31 |
| #12 I didn't see a lot of blood on the bodies, sheets, ground, or rescuers. As a layman, I expect the bodies to have visible signs of being crushed to death. What I see are whole, uncrushed bodies, that may well have been killed by a concussion at another location. Before I was thinking they collapsed the building on live people. Now I'm beginning to think they stocked the building with bodies and demolished it, which would be much more "palatable" to the terrorists and their supporters. I didn't see any signs of maggots or decomposition, but I'm just looking at pictures. That would suggest these deaths are recent or, unlikely, the bodies were refrigerated. The whole thing, from beginning to end, just has the markings of a what may well have been a trap. And they've been know to have done this kind of thing before almost exactly with that incident involving the "beach shelling" in Israel. Except there they used live terrorists to play the dead bodies. If all this turns out to be an act, I wouldn't be surprised if half of the point of this would be to pass their hate down to their children to validate their stupid ideology. That would be desperate. It would be interesting to match families who claimed to lose relatives to DNA of the bodies. We already know it's OK to exhume the bodies to move them from the statements made at the mass gravesites in Beirut . . . . |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-07-31 17:49 |
| #11 Merely another button on the coat. The IDF needs to concentrate on one thing only, namely wasting Hezbollah so regularly you can set your watch by it. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-07-31 17:47 |
| #10 OK, we've got our own resident physician. Dr. White, any observations about the photographs of the bodies on display? Some do look rather grayer and stiffer than others. EU Referendum also has some archival shots of Mr. Green Helmet at the scene of an attack on children in 1996 by the evil Joooos. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-31 16:44 |
#9 I wondered about the stiffness of some of the bodies, so looked up Rigor Mortis.
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| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2006-07-31 16:21 |
| #8 From gorb's link: Their faces were ashen gray. While medical examination clearly is called for to arrive at a definitive dating and cause of their deaths, they do not appear to have died hours before. The bodies looked like they had been dead for days. I'm no expert on dead bodies, but that was my reaction as well. Looks like the whole thing was staged. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-07-31 16:10 |
| #7 My money's on the Baseej having a hand in this. |
| Posted by: Jake-the-peg 2006-07-31 15:34 |
| #6 Many skeptical observations here |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-07-31 14:33 |
| #5 It's very possible that the bomb hits weakened the building, and it just collapsed later. It's still Hezbollah's fault for setting up a battery in a civillian area. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-07-31 10:00 |
| #4 'cus it is the eeeevil jooooooos fighting. That is why. Everything is first Israel's fault, then the Jews, then the USA. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-07-31 09:50 |
| #3 This fills in the blanks. http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/8997.htm |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2006-07-31 09:19 |
| #2 Media prop right on schedule. |
| Posted by: SamAdamsky 2006-07-31 09:11 |
| #1 Why focus on this one incident? The Shiite-Sunni battles in Iraq are costing thousands of lives each month. What are the Eurabians saying about that? Other than blaming the US for internal social divisions. |
| Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 2006-07-31 09:08 |