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Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
July 28th, 2014
07:04 PM ET
Wolf Blitzer goes inside a Hamas tunnel
CNN's Wolf Blitzer goes inside one of Hamas' tunnels near the Gaza border with Israel.
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Italian Journalist Defies Hamas: ‘Out of Gaza Far From Hamas Retaliation: Misfired Rocket Killed Children in Shati’
JULY 30, 2014 9:53 AM
Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati said he was able to speak freely about witnessing a Hamas misfire that killed nine children at the Shati camp, confirming the Israel Defense Forces version of events, but only after leaving Gaza, “far from Hamas retaliation.”
On Twitter, Barbati, Jerusalem Correspondent for Radio Popolare Milano, and a former reporter for Sky Italia, in Beijing, said, “Out of #Gaza far from #Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday [yesterday] in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris.”
He said, “@IDFSpokesperson said truth in communique released yesterday about Shati camp massacre. It was not #Israel behind it.”
On Tuesday, the IDF released aerial photos showing how a rocket from Gaza targeting Israel hit the Shati camp, run by the UNRWA, and Al Shifa Hospital, which has become a de-facto Hamas headquarters, against international rules of war.
Barbati said he was unable to speak about the Al Shifa hit, but he was certain that it was a Hamas rocket that hit the Shati camp, and a witness saw militants rushing to clean the debris.
Blogger Elder of Ziyon, who praised Barbati for telling the truth in a war where many journalists have been intimidated by Hamas, noted that “When Hamas made the area off limits to reporters, it was cleaning the area from any debris that could show the truth.”
An IDF diagram showing how four rockets from Gaza hit the sea, Israel, Shati and Al Shifa Hospital. Photo: IDF.
On Tuesday, CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, called out two correspondents from The Wall Street Journal for deleting photographs that would implicate Hamas in the war crime of using the Al Shifa hospital as a military headquarters. Other journalists, including a Gazan reporter for French media recounted to France’s Libération how Hamas had interrogated him in the same hospital, but later asked the newspaper to take down the story.
Elder of Ziyon said, “Every single report on TV from Gaza should have this disclaimer: ‘Our reporters have been threatened, implicitly and perhaps explicitly, by Hamas to only report one side of the story.Viewers must not trust anything they are saying.’”
“There is an assumption of fairness in journalism, a contract between the media and the viewers,” the influential blogger said. “This contract has been broken, as far as I can tell, by nearly every single reporter in Gaza in nearly every report, with a couple of rare exceptions.”
Dear Wolf,
Many children are killed in Gaza by Israel Military. There so many questions to ask to God why this is happening.
But, I will ask you as a journalist that I believe is doing his work correctly.
These tunnels between 2.5 – 3 km that are build under ground can be made in min. 2 years (each). Israel military had information about these tunnels as these tunnels where used for trading by companies and persons in Israel to sell goods at higher prices to the people in Gaza. Israel's Mossad was using these tunnels as well to transfer their own spys. Most of these tunnels are build by Israel. Now my question is: If there are more then 30 tunels build by Hamas into Israel. How many terror attacks did happend inside of Israel by terrorist that used these multi tunnels in last 5 years?
The world needs to know what type of games are going on in that region. But, maybe the world allready knows, so why does the world is watching children die.. becasuse children are the future and maybe Israel goverment does not want a future for these people in Gaza.
Regards,
Tolga Altug