Following the release of a drone picture that Israel had claimed showed Palestinians loading weapons into a United Nations ambulance comes word that
the picture did actually show a stretcher. The Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. had asked earlier in the week to investigate after the picture was taken
over the Jebaliya refugee camp in Gaza.
story.news.yahoo.com
UNITED NATIONS - Israel has acknowledged that a U.N. ambulance in Gaza was carrying a stretcher � not a rocket as it claimed earlier this month, U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday.
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman asked Annan to investigate Peter Hansen, head of the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, after the
Israeli army released video taken by an unmanned aircraft flying over the Jebaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel, which has long accused the U.N. Relief and Works Agency of bias, said the footage showed militants loading a rocket into an ambulance with
U.N. markings on its roof. The United Nations immediately denied the accusation and said the footage showed a worker loading a stretcher into an
ambulance.
Palestinian rescue worker Wahel Ghabayen, 38, said he had run with a stretcher to a school in Jebaliya after he heard that someone there may have been
wounded. But the wounded boy had already been moved so he returned to the car, folded the stretcher, "and threw it inside," he said.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it might have been mistaken when it accused the agency, known as UNRWA, of transporting a rocket to militants.
The statement stopped short of clearly admitting an error.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
Israel and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency have often been at odds with the former accusing the agency of bias. When the initial charges were made
the U.N. was quick to deny them. The statement by the IDF said that they may have made a mistake in accusing the agency of transporting weapons to
militants. Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Kofi Annan, had this to say: "the Israeli government has acknowledged that the video of the UNRWA
ambulance does in fact show the driver handling a stretcher and not a rocket."
You know its funny. We get 60 some odd posts regarding the intial story. Some of our members in the thread that is link above did indicate that they
felt it was a stretcher. Back and forth we went with rhetoric coming from both side. Now its been admitted to having been a "error" by the IDF.
Where are all the posters now?
Just more evidence of certain nations' mistrust of the UN. The Israelis were wrong. Do a search using the keywords "UN failure" and see just how
effective the UN has been (there are far too many articles for me to post links). It makes sense that some are reluctant to trust it as an
organization. However, Israel does seem a bit too anxious to make bold accusations like this.