UPDATE: The Assassination of Kamal Medhat in Lebanon

Related Post: The Killing of Kamal Medhat in Lebanon
Related Post: Senior Fatah Official Assassinated in Lebanon

Lebanese security sources are saying that Kamal Medhat (Kamal Naji), the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's deputy representative in Lebanon killed on Monday in a bombing, was " "a victim of [an] inter-Palestinian feud, due to a clear split within Fatah movement ranks". The Lebanese daily As-Safier said the dispute arose from new arrangements to separate the management of the organisation in Lebanon from Fatah's military wing, which Medhat was to lead.

Another Lebanese source, however, implied that the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam might have had a hand in the assassination. He warned that the Mieh Mieh camp in southern Lebanon, which Medhat was visiting, must not become "another Naher el-Barid camp".. Naher el-Barid, in the north of the country, was destroyed in 2007 in fighting between the Lebanese Amy and Fatah al-Islam.

Flashback: How Israel Denied Civilian Casualties in Gaza

Related Post: UN Report - Israel Violations of Gazan Human Rights “Too Numerous to Count”

As yet more reports, this time from Israeli soldiers and from the United Nations Human Rights Council, document the extent of Israeli abuses and killing of Gazan civilians, Enduring America takes a look back at the Israeli explanations --- and denials --- during the war:

On 27 December, Israel began bombing the 360 square kilometres of Gaza, in which 1.4 million Palestinians live. A day later, On 28 December, 2008, Tim Marshall of Sky News interviewed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpUslPq_GGc[/youtube]

Tim Marshall: “What concern the outside world it seems most of all is the civilian deaths. Now the death toll is approaching 300. Approximately a third to be civilians.”

Livni: “Not civilians!”

Tim Marshall: “Hamas is saying maybe 180 of its men of being killed. That leaves about a third of civilians. You do not accept of these figures?”

Livni: “We do not accept these figures and this is not only the values of the international community. These are our values as well. We are targeting Hamas, we are trying to avoid any kind of civilian casualties. Before the operation we called all the population which lives nearby Hamas headquarters to leave. We are doing everything in order to avoid or minimize civil casualties but a war is a war and these things can happen, this is not our intention but we can not avoid completely any kind of civilian casualties. But the possibility for this, lies on the Hamas shoulders.”

Almost a month later, Yigal Palmor, the Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman, claimed there was no evidence to support claims that white phosphorus bomb shells were illegally fired near civilians.

Subsequent reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and foreign journalists have documented evidence of the use of white phosphorous in crowded residential areas. The United Nations said that its headquarters were hit by three white phosphorus shells during the Israeli operation.

Israeli officials have fallen back on the claim of a "legal" use of white phosphorous on the battlefield. In 2005 spokesman Peter Kraiser told the BBC:

It's not forbidden by the CWC [Chemical Weapons Convention] if it is used within the context of a military application which does not require or does not intend to use the toxic properties of white phosphorus. White phosphorus is normally used to produce smoke, to camouflage movement. If that is the purpose for which the white phosphorus is used, then that is considered under the Convention legitimate use.

There's another part of Kraiser's explanation, however, which does not sit easily with the Israeli invasion of Gaza more than three years later:

If on the other hand the toxic properties of white phosphorus, the caustic properties, are specifically intended to be used as a weapon, that of course is prohibited, because the way the Convention is structured or the way it is in fact applied, any chemicals used against humans or animals that cause harm or death through the toxic properties of the chemical are considered chemical weapons.

In Gaza, where approximately 4000 people are jammed into each square kilmetre, no one can talk about “minimizing civilian casualties". The worst thing in this case is that, given the geographical and demographical data, even a 5 year-old child can tell you that phosphorus bombs will not only kill combatants/terrorists but also will take lives of dozens of women, children, and elderly people in the midst of crowded buildings located on narrow streets.

There is no 'but" after the revelation of innocents lives taken by disproportionate and illegal military operations. There is no escape with the hard-nosed declaration “war is war".