Israeli Panel Finds No Crime in 2002 Assassination

[alp227]

JERUSALEM — Nearly nine years after an Israeli assassination of a Hamas leader in Gaza killed at least 13 innocent civilians and led to widespread international condemnation, a government-appointed panel of inquiry concluded Sunday that the operation was flawed but that the consequences “did not stem from disregard or indifference to human lives.”

The three-member panel, headed by a retired Israeli Supreme Court justice, found that the collateral damage was “disproportionate.” But it said that its examination of the operation according to the rules of Israeli and international law “unequivocally” removed any suspicion that the Israelis responsible for the attack committed a criminal offense.

It attributed the deadly results of the operation to “incorrect assessments and mistaken judgment based on an intelligence failure in the collection and transfer of information” among the different agencies involved.

In July 2002, at the height of the second Palestinian uprising, an Israeli F-16 dropped a one-ton bomb on the building where Sheik Salah Shehada, a founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas and its chief of operations, was staying.

Israel said it was imperative to kill Sheik Shehada because he was directly involved in the planning and execution of deadly terrorist attacks that killed many Israeli civilians.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/world/middleeast/28israel.html

[elias49]

1. Imagine my surprise. Haha. Israel: pure as driven snow. nt

[Ramulux]

2. Tell that to the families of the dead civilians

[Ken Burch]

3. (insert the standard Likudnik "the rockets justify everything" boilerplate post here)

n/t.