SBS
On further checking, what the coordinator means by "outside the school" is, actually not on school grounds at all and firing on a team of HAMAS fighters who were engaged in shooting at the Israelis while being next to the school. Ooops.The United Nations has retracted a claim that an Israeli strike which killed more than 40 people in northern Gaza city of Jabaliya last month hit a school run by a UN agency.
"The humanitarian coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school," the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest weekly update on the situation in Gaza.
It stressed that its initial report of the January 6 incident correctly stated that Israeli shells hit outside the school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, but that it later referred to "the shelling of the UNRWA school in Jabaliya."
The Israeli military initially said its forces had responded to hostile fire from within the UN school but later reportedly retracted that statement.
The attack sparked widespread outrage in the midst of Israel's deadly offensive in Gaza.
Also Sri Lanka, the hospital that was bombed? Huuhhhh...
hums real Sri Lankan Hero!
Ooops sorry for claiming you shot at us and calling you babies eaters...The United Nations yesterday apologised to the Government for their comments over a report of using 'forbidden' cluster bombs on the Puthukudiruppu hospital in the Vanni.
The statement issued by the UN's Colombo based spokesperson Gordon Weiss, did not point a finger at military, but it prompted an Amnesty International report denouncing the act which they directly attributed to Government Forces.
Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry Secretary Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha said the UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Neil Buhne extended a verbal apology yesterday morning for the comments made by its spokesman.
However, Prof. Wijesinha has insisted for a statement that would lead to correcting the Amnesty International report based on the UN statement, in a letter addressed to the UN Resident Coordinator yesterday morning.
He wrote that the Government was "reaching a very difficult situation with many people pouncing on any loose statements by respected agencies like UN and ICRC and twisting them to their own uses."
Prof. Wijesinha said the the report of the use of cluster bombs by Government Forces was a frail attempt by the defeated LTTE to rouse emotions of the international community. "We did a detailed analysis of how the storty escalated," he said adding that the reports were trying to indicate the Government was using Russian made forbidden munitions in its humanitarian mission to free civilians from LTTE clutches. "They should be careful not to fall into LTTE traps," he added.
You know, maybe I should have just seen it coming. And yes frankly I do think politics played a role in the claims, especially since UN officals have been demanding that the Sri Lankan army accept a cease fire instead of... You know ending the 30 year civil war started by a terrorist group that targets civilians. Guess what I think about the Israeli part to?