Human Rights Watch and Mark Galasco came away from a meeting with IDF officials conceding that Israeli artillery could not be responsible for the Gaza beach tragedy. The Jerusalem Post writes:
On Monday, Maj.-Gen. Meir Klifi – head of the IDF inquiry commission that cleared the IDF of responsibility for the blast – met with Marc Garlasco, a military expert from the HRW who had last week claimed that the blast was caused by an IDF artillery shell. Following the three-hour meeting, described by both sides as cordial and pleasant, Garlasco praised the IDF’s professional investigation into the blast, which he said was most likely caused by unexploded Israeli ordnance left laying on the beach, a possibility also raised by Klifi and his team….
Garlasco told Klifi during the meeting that he was impressed with the IDF’s system of checks and balances concerning its artillery fire in the Gaza Strip and unlike Hamas which specifically targeted civilians in its rocket attacks, the Israelis, he said, invested a great amount of resources and efforts not to harm innocent civilians.
And according to YNet News, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan retracted previous comments, saying he was duped by press coverage:
Following a meeting Thursday with Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Gillerman, he told reporters that he had responded to “media speculations.”
We hope the media outlets that quoted Garlasco’s initial charges will give equal prominence to these developments.
