IDF: Qana building fell hours after strike - News from Israel, Ynetnews

Yea, they were talking about this on FoxNews-- would make great propaganda for Hezbollah if they hadn't created it.

Dennis, i just want to second your thoughtful comments. We who areremoved from this should not judge prematurely. I think your nuanced questioning of Israel's"balance" in tactics is especially apropos.

You're already looking for reasons to dismiss this before there has been time to get the whole story out. Nothing like being open-minded, eh?

If the IDF really are telling a complete pack of lies (which would be pretty stupid because the facts can be determined objectively) this will soon come out.

Try a bit of patience.

"War crime"

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora denounced the Qana carnage as a "war crime," demanding an immediate ceasefire in a conflict that Health Minister Mohammed Khalifeh said had killed 750 people.

An AFP count has put the death toll at more than 500, while the UN has said around one third of the casualties were children.

Hezbollah and Palestinian militant movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad have vowed revenge.

Mr Siniora ruled out any talks on putting an end to the conflict until there was an immediate halt to Israel's offensive, signalling the likely failure of secretary Rice's efforts to win support for the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon.

"There is no place on this sad morning for any discussion other than an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as well as an international investigation into the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now," he told reporters.

International reaction

Reaction to the bloodshed was fierce across the Arab world, and even Britain, Washington's closest ally, branded the Qana attack as "quite appalling."

In Europe, Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said it was "shocked and dismayed" by the strikes.

"There is no justification for attacks causing casualties among innocent civilians, most of them women and children," it said in a statement, echoing condemnations from Scandinavian and other European countries.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett described the Qana raids as "quite appalling" and said Britain had "repeatedly urged the Israelis to act proportionately".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed "profound pity" for the victims, calling on Israel to observe "proportion" in its attacks and avoid civilian casualties, and reiterating calls for a swift ceasefire.

Britain and Germany issued a joint statement saying the events at Qana "have underlined the urgency of the need for a ceasefire as soon as possible."

Switzerland said it acknowledged the right of Israel to defend itself but added: "The operations should adhere strictly to the rules of international humitarian law."

French President Jacques Chirac condemned the bombing as an "unjustifiable action which shows more than ever the need to agree on an immediate ceasefire".

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said "nothing can justify" the deadly bombardment and Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker, described it as "state terrorism."

"These aggressions are crimes against humanity and war crimes in all senses of the words," Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. "It is to hide their failure in achieving their military objectives."

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said he "strongly condemned Israel's ongoing barbaric attacks on Lebanon, the latest of which is the attack on the village of Qana."

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference said "the latest Israeli
massacre amounts to a war crime and shows Israel's contempt for international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in times of war."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country has been involved in diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, called Israel's attack "irresponsible" and reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire.

Jordan, another regional broker, also strongly condemned the raid, while Iran blamed the bloody attack on secretary Rice's visit to the region.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned the attack and asked the United Nations to oversee an immediate ceasefire, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told

I SPY:

1. Your long comment here seems to have some very troll-like characteristics, as it is ignoring the topic of the seeded article (that there was a very suspicious gap between the building being hit and the building going down) and instead just giving some slightly-related attacks against Israel. (I don't like trolls)
2. Your long comment also seems to be written very much in the style of a newspaper article. Can you please clarify whether this is your own piece, or whether it was taken from another source. If it was from another source, please provide a link, and please do not copy the whole thing

I dont believe that the topic you refer to is true or will make any difference if it is true. Israel had been Universally condemned for this and it was VETO'd by the USA again. So what I am saying is that this is a LIE, or irrelevant at best.

Thanks I SPY. You have your pre-emptive rant. The rest of us will just wait for confirmation of the facts, thank you very much.

Or to phrase it differently, the people who love 9/11 conspiracy theories are jumping on this as absolute bull@!$%#, before even having read the story.

I agree that the time stamp theory has been debunked.

First of all, to the able-minded, when presented with such a range of timestamps, the normal conclusion drawn is that the times do not represent when the photographs were taken, but rather when they were posted

Actually, I think that the IDF is referring to photos and video footage of the site taken by IDF aircraft and drones that covered the entire period. Not the media footage. They know exactly when their missiles hit the ground next to the building, and they know exactly when the building fell.

They know exactly when their missiles hit the ground next to the building, and they know exactly when the building fell.

And how exactly do you know this?