Eyewitness testimony reported Wednesday by Al Jazeera accused Israeli troops of massacring forcibly displaced women and children sheltering at a school in northern Gaza,
The Israeli soldiers came in and opened fire on them," one unidentified witness said. “They took all men, then entered classrooms and opened fire on a woman and all the children with her,” including “newborn children.”
“The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent families point-blank,” she added.
A man who arrived at the scene after the alleged mass murder told Al Jazeera that “we found dozens of dead bodies in the classrooms.”
“There is no sign of any missiles or shells,” he added. “All those who were in the buildings were executed from point-blank. The Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. Many families came searching for their children. They found them all killed. They were all killed, executed at gunpoint.”
What would independent verification mean on this? Who would qualify as independent that could reach the scene and evaluate it? At some point you can’t just decide that since the invading and allegedly responsible power doesn’t allow international investigations then no potential crime can ever be responsibly reported.
Do you think that statement should not have been included in the article?
What statement? I think that it hasn’t been independently verified is essential, because it’s true, but the person I responded to wanted the entire story to not be published.
I didn’t understand the point you were trying to make. Thank you for clarifying.
I watched the video from Al Jazeera. There are blurred sections, but at no point does it show blood or anything that is unambiguously a human body. I don’t expect that corpses with gunshot wounds would be broadcast on TV, but that still leaves commondreams.org with no evidence beyond several brief interviews filmed by Al Jazeera. I do expect that if this event took place, impartial news agencies would have access to uncensored images of the aftermath. I’m going to wait and see if the New York Times publishes something.
Removed by mod
So, what you’re saying is that there’s enough ground to believe that this news organization, Al Jazeera, has fabricated dead bodies. The journalist team blurred a pile of puppets or something and went on-air, lying they’re human bodies. That’s an interesting take…
Alright, I’m out. I have nothing more to say to you.
I won’t believe it without unblurred pictures. It’s not that hard; links to gory pictures should be included with a warning in these kinds of articles.
I’d think it’s hard enough to acquire pictures from a war zone…
Yes, but they already have them. They could just publish the footage without editing it. The footage already does look compelling, but it would be better if it was unblurred.