August 01, 2006

Qana : IDF Corrects Earlier Statements, Hizb'Allah Story Still Falling Apart

From Ha'aretz:

As the Israel Air Force continues to investigate the air strike, questions have been raised over military accounts of the incident.

It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time.

The Israel Defense Forces had said after the deadly air-strike that many rockets had been launched from Qana. However, it changed its version on Monday.

The site was included in an IAF plan to strike at several buildings in proximity to a previous launching site. Similar strikes were carried out in the past. However, there were no rocket launches from Qana on the day of the strike.

The article also notes the strange timing of Hizb'Allah's Qana narrative:

The survivors say rescue teams arrived only in the morning, as night conditions made the rescue mission difficult. The Red Cross in Tyre received a call for help only in the morning, explaining their late arrival.

The media first heard of the bombing at 8 A.M. The foreign press quoted Lebanese sources explaining the late announcement, saying the electricity and phones in the village of Qana were almost entirely cut-off by IAF attacks.

So, if you believe Hizb'Allah, the building collapsed around midnight, with ~50 people inside, including at least 19 children. There were apparently a whole bunch of witnesses to the building's collapse. This didn't happen in the middle of nowhere. After the building collapsed, the villagers leapt to action and... did what? Were there any survivors under the rubble? Did the villagers attempt to find out? Did they care? Did they dive into the wreckage to save any of their loved ones who may have survived the building's collapse? It doesn't appear so. Israel Insider notes that

Lebanese rescue teams did not start evacuating the building until the morning and only after the camera crews came. The absence of a real rescue effort was explained by saying that equipment was lacking. There were no scenes of live or injured people being extracted.

From what we can tell, the villagers did exactly NOTHING in the wake of the collapse. We're told the villagers didn't dig into the rubble to search for survivors because... well, there were "conditions," you see, and they were... well, they were "NIGHT conditions." And you know how those night conditions are. They're all, ya know, "night-ish" & dark & stuff. Somebody might trip or something. There might be ghosts. The villagers apparently couldn't call anyone because all communications lines (wired and wireless) out of Qana were completely cut off between midnight and 7:00 am. They couldn't send anyone up the road to Tyre (15 miles away) to get help because... well, we're not really sure why no one did that, but I'm sure there will be some explanation. Or there won't.

The more we hear about the events at Qana, the less Hizb'Allah's story makes any sense at all.