The deaths of ten Palestinians, including eight children, at the Shati refugee camp in Gaza and a further explosion within the Shifa Hospital complex were both blamed on Israel by Hamas and Palestinian “eyewitnesses.”
The Times of Israel reports:
AFP had initially reported that seven children were killed when an Israeli missile slammed into the playground, citing a Palestinian doctor at the city’s main hospital.
The missile was said to have struck a group of children running around at a public playground in the beachfront Shati refugee camp.
A short while later, a missile struck a building inside the compound housing Gaza’s largest hospital on Monday, Hamas medics and an AFP correspondent said.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said a wall of a building inside the compound was damaged by a missile, which he said was fired by an Israeli drone.
Most media reports were later updated to include the IDF’s vehement denials with Israeli spokespeople stating that the incidents were the result of misfiring Palestinian not Israeli rockets. (See the image above.) Yet the media appears to, at best, treat Hamas and Israeli statements as equal.
Credit then to one Italian reporter, Gabriele Barbati who backed the IDF’s version of events in this tweet:
Out of #Gaza far from #Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris
— gabrielebarbati (@gabrielebarbati) July 29, 2014
Why does the media give equal weight to a terrorist organization with very few scruples and a total disregard for human life as it does to Israeli officials?
Let’s be very clear – Hamas lies.
