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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18181/full/18181/gaza-missile-attack-leads-to-israeli-soul-searching/ <br /><br /> <b>Gaza missile attack leads to Israeli soul-searching</b> <br /> Friday, July 26, 2002 | by <p>JOE ESKENAZIBulletin Staff </p> <br /><br /><p>"We were left no option. When we can put our hands on such a man, our responsibility is to bring justice to him. This time many innocent people paid with their lives," said Yossi Amrani of Tuesday's early-morning destruction of Salah Shehada's Gaza City apartment building and several neighboring structures.<br /><br /> In addition to the civilian deaths, at least 150 Palestinians were injured after an F-16 fighter fired a missile into Shehada's building. The death toll led to stinging condemnations of Israel from the international community, with even the White House declaring the attack "heavy-handed."<br /><br /> "I lament the loss of any civilian lives," said Amrani. "When you are fighting terror, sometimes you are more successful, sometimes you are less successful. This time, innocent people paid the price. We are sorry about that, we regret that. But this is war."<br /><br /> Shehada, the 48-year-old founder of Hamas' military wing, was blamed by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for the deaths of 200 Israelis, and was reputedly plotting future attacks, including bombings in Gush Katif and Beersheva and the destruction of the Gush Katif Bridge.<br /><br /> Shehada first became active during the first intifada, and was incarcerated within Israeli jails from 1988 to 1999, when he was transferred to a Palestinian prison and subsequently released. Israel had made dozens of requests to the Palestinian Authority to arrest Shehada. He was jailed last year, but quickly freed.<br /><br /> Israeli government officials blamed faulty intelligence for the high number of civilian casualties. Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer issued a statement that "the information which we had was there were no civilians near him." Other security officials told the Israeli media that it was believed Shehada was alone in the building with his right-hand man, Zaher Nasser, who was also killed in the blast.<br /><br /> Peres publicly apologized for the aftermath of the raid.<br /><br /> "I don't support and nobody supports the results of the attack," he told CNN. "A mistake is a mistake, and I cannot explain mistakes, but I can say [an attack on Shehada] was postponed on eight different occasions, when we were in the footsteps of Mr. Shehada, whom I called a local bin Laden, and every time it was postponed because the danger that civilian life will be in danger."<br /><br /> The Israel Defense Force issued a statement lamenting the harming of innocents, but "this is what can happen when a terrorist uses civilians as a human shield and their homes as a place of refuge."<br /><br /> Within Israel, however, critics of the attack said the Israel Air Force was reckless in firing a missile laden with a ton of explosives into a densely packed section of Gaza City crowded with substandard buildings.<br /><br /> "Those who gave the orders to bomb a residential neighborhood must have considered the fact that many civilians would be hurt," said the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem in a press statement. "A government that approves such an attack willfully adopts the tactics of terrorist organizations, who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends."<br /><br /> Knesset Member Yossi Sarid of the Meretz Party blasted the move, describing it as "a form of terror" on Army Radio.<br /><br /> "There were international and regional efforts, the entire world including the United States was working on a cease-fire, so why do it now?" he said.<br /><br /> The air raid also came shortly after a tentative proposal from Hamas to halt suicide bombings in exchange for Israeli withdrawals from occupied cities within the territories. Additionally, Palestinian sources claimed militant groups had signed a cease-fire declaration less than two hours before the attack. Israeli officials denied those reports.<br /><br /> Amrani dismissed the Hamas proposal as a public relations ploy.<br /><br /> "Hamas has declared cease-fires before, declared truces before. They have never kept their word, never complied with their commitment. Always there are strings attached; a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 border, Jerusalem, etc.," he said.<br /><br /> "This is an extremist organization targeting innocent Israelis. Portraying Hamas as an organization fighting for Palestinian independence and aiming at peace negotiations, that is a different Hamas than the one we know."<br /><br /> Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals of Shehada and the 14 others killed in the attack, with many venting their rage and calling for revenge.<br /><br /> "Revenge will be taken. All the Palestinian people will unify to take revenge for the blood of the martyrs," Hamas spokesman Ismail Hanieyh told reporters at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where those wounded in the blast were taken.<br /><br /> Prime Minister Ariel Sharon referred to the attack as "a great success," adding, "we of course have no interest in striking civilians and are always sorry over civilians who were struck."<br /><br /> Amrani declined to judge whether the attack was "worth it," instead separating the positives and negatives.<br /><br /> "When you check [Shehada's] background, when you learn of his role in different attacks, when you are faced with his responsibility in killing so many people, you consider it a success," he said. "When you get to loss of innocent life, it's not a success."</p> <p> </p>

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