JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Palestinian civil organisations fumed over comments made by a senior figure at the United Nations Relief Work Agency (UNRWA) regarding the 11-day Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The comments were deemed “misleading and dangerous”.
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Matthias Schmale, the director of operations for UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, told Israel’s Channel 12 on Sunday that the Israeli military’s strikes on Gaza appeared to be carried out with “sophistication” and “precision”.
“I have the impression there is a huge sophistication in the way the Israeli military struck over the 11 days,” Schmale said. “Yes they didn’t hit, with some exceptions, civilian targets, but the viciousness, the ferocity of those strikes were heavily felt.
“More than 60 children were killed, 19 of who went to UNRWA schools. So I think the precision was there but there was unacceptable and unbearable loss of life on the civilian side,” he added.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) and the Palestinian Human Rights Organisations’ Council (PHROC) said Schmale’s comments “completely ignored the crimes committed during the latest Israeli offensive against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip”.
“It is regrettable that Mr. Schmale, who heads one of the most important international organisations responsible for protecting and advocating the rights of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, provided statements indirectly praising the precision and sophistication of the Israeli army, when Israel is in fact constantly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people,” the statement said.
“Instead of calling to address the root causes behind the conflict, Mr. Schmale appeared to defend the actions of the Israeli military.”
According to Gaza health authorities, at least 253 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children, during the 11-day bombardment of the Gaza strip. At least 12 civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel by rockets fired by terrorist groups in Gaza.
The statement claimed that Israel had adopted “systematic targeting” of civilians, civilian buildings and infrastructure not as “military gains” but rather, “to collectively punish and terrorise the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, as it has done so over the last 14 years through the imposition of an illegal and humanitarian blockade, and the launch of three destructive and deadly wars”. The statement omitted mention of the Israeli policy of roof-knocking before bombing residential buildings.
Schmale issued a partial retraction on Tuesday, and said that “military precision and sophistication are never a justification for war”.
“Recent remarks I made on Israeli TV have offended & hurt those who had family members & friends killed & injured during the war that has just ended,” he wrote on Twitter.
“I truly regret to have caused them pain.”
Mr. Schmale, it is a pity you could not stand by your original statement.
the truth hurts
The word “Palestinian ” would by now have been forgotten had The Great Steal of 2020 not happened.
A day of reckoning will surely come and the Kamala Jew lovers will yet tremble.