Thank God the UN Wants to Actually Investigate...

[Guest MikeSC]

UN officials said Saturday they are investigating a claim by the Israeli military that Palestinian terrorists transported a rocket in a vehicle with UN markings, but accused Israel of having made false allegations in the past.

 

On Friday, the IDF released video footage taken from an unmanned aircraft, or drone, flying over the Jebalya refugee camp. The blurred black-and-white video showed three men walking toward the U.N. vehicle, including one who carried an elongated object. The army said the object was a rocket.

 

Peter Hansen, the head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Saturday that "we are doing our best to see what the basis for the allegations is," and that U.N. ambulance drivers were being questioned. The UNRWA is an agency which assists Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

 

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Saturday, Hansen said he was on his way to Jerusalem hopefully to be able to see higher resolution footage of the incident. He added that he has instigated an investigation of all ambulance drivers and orderlies. "This won't be the first time false allegations have been made against us. Everyone who has seen the footage has told me the object looks more like a folded-up stretcher than anything else. Especially since it was being carried with one hand. A Kassam rocket would be too heavy for a man to carry with one hand.

 

"Unless we are talking about Goliath, (he) could hardly carry a Kassam rocket as a light object in one hand," Hansen told The Associated Press.

 

According to the IDF website, the Kassam rocket is about 2 meters long and weighs on average 5.5 KG (about 12 pounds).

 

"This is not the first time that we have allegations that turn out to be false or rather (are) based on very, very insufficient evidence," he said.

 

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Gillerman, has called on UN Secretary General Koffi Anan to fire Peter Hansen, the head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) following the publication of video footage showing Palestinian terrorists storing what appears to be a Kassam rocket inside a UN-marked vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip.

 

"We view this incident very seriously, and I intend on Monday to turn to the UN Secretary General with a very strong complaint. I will ask him to come to the necessary conclusions regarding UNRWA, to check the incident and establish a serious committee of inquiry that will get to the bottom of this thing. It is unacceptable that the UN, which is supposed to further the goals of peace, will turn into a shelter for murderers," Gillerman said.

 

Gillerman also called Hansen "anti-Israeli," Israel Radio reported.

 

Israel has accused terrorists of using U.N. vehicles and offices to launch attacks. Israel has also accused UNRWA officials of turning a blind eye to terrorist activities in their vicinity, and of bias against Israel.

 

Israel uses drones to monitor activities in the crowded Gaza refugee camps. The footage provides soldiers and pilots real-time pictures of what is happening on the ground.

 

Friday's footage was released while the army launched a wide scale operation in the Jebalya refugee camp and nearby towns in an attempt to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on towns in Israel. Those rocket attacks killed two Israeli preschoolers Wednesday.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...p=1006688055060

And some people think the UN might not be open to complaints from Israel about unfair treatment. FOOLS!

-=Mike

[Styles 0]

Well, you know you just can't trust THOSE people....