New York Times Article on Removing Israel From “Grim” List Omits Crucial Information
An article appearing in The New York Times discusses the decision by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to leave Israel and Hamas off a list of army and guerrillas groups that kill and maim children.
The article states,
The United Nations, in a separate report in April, found that Israeli military actions killed 44 Palestinian civilians who had sought refuge in seven schools run by the organization. The conflict left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead, while 72 were killed on the Israeli side, including 66 soldiers.
The war was a sharp escalation of tensions between Israel and the United Nations, which provides an array of services to the Palestinians in Gaza. United Nations officials said they had repeatedly communicated the locations of facilities harboring civilians to the Israeli military.
Crucial information is missing from this article that explains why Israel targeted certain schools. The separate report referenced in the article refers to an internal inquiry released on April 27, 2015. Here, in the report summary, is the crucial information contained in it that the Times article on June 9, 2015 left out:
It also said that weapons had not been found inside those United Nations schools, but rather in three other United Nations-run schools that were vacant at the time, that were used by Hamas militants to stash arms and that were “probably” sites from which rockets were fired at Israel.
So the Times article on June 9 does not inform readers that the United Nations confirmed that Hamas used schools to store munitions and launch rockets, albeit not the same ones the report notes were hit by Israeli fire. That is important information in trying to understand why Secretary General Ban chose to not include Israel on the “grim” list.
The entire inquiry report released on April 27, 2015 can be found here.
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