They Hardly Felt a Thing

NSW Community Relations Commissioner-cum-Israel lobbyist, Vic Alhadeff "accused Hamas of 'war crimes' for 'indiscriminately' attacking civilians, claiming in contrast, Israel uses 'care to avoid civilian casualties' and 'pinpoint technologies to hit the targeted infrastructure'." (Jewish leader Vic Alhadeff slammed over Hamas 'war crimes' remark, Nicole Hasham, Sydney Morning Herald, 12/7/14)

Pinpoint technologies to hit targeted infrastructure?

Wow, these high-tech, state-of-the-art Israeli surgical procedures are so precise, so minimally invasive, the patient hardly feels a thing. For example:

"Who knows who lived in the two first-floor apartments above a home for eight disabled adults in a neighbourhood of east Gaza? Perhaps, as a neighbour suggests, one was a militant with Islamic Jihad who lived there with his family. But the neighbour says he is not sure. What is certain is that the occupant was absent early on Saturday when two Israeli drones 'knocked on his roof' - firing warning shots to encourage civilians to vacate the building prior to a strike. A few minutes later, an Israeli warplane fired a missile into the house. But it did not detonate on the first floor. Instead, it smashed through to the ground floor, where the explosion ripped through the room where 5 of the disabled people were sleeping, killing two and injuring the others.

"A neighbour found one of the dead after he noticed flies buzzing around where she was buried. 'A body! A body!' the man shouted. Gingerly he lifted the piece of concrete concealing a curly head of hair, face down in the debris. Atef Abed, a supervisor with the private charity that runs the home, recognised Suha Abu Saada, 47, as her body was dug out of the rubble, one of her legs was missing. As small as a child, she had been thrown out of the room where she was sleeping by the blast and buried beneath a concrete wall. 'That's Suha,' Abed said as the body was carried past on a mattress covered in a blanket. 'Ola Wishaa was 30. She was killed as well. And Ahmad was injured along with Mai and Sali. Luckily two of the other residents were away visiting their families.'

"It seemed a miracle that anyone could have survived a missile that exploded in the very centre of a room where a fin and part of its guidance system remained embedded in the concrete. A scorched bed stood to one side, damaged by the blast which blew out the walls and left palm trees in the garden as truncated stumps standing amid the rubble. 'The bomb came straight through the roof,' said Mohammad Bahri, 22, who lives next door. 'About 4.30am two drones fired warning shots and then the jet came in and bombed.

"'The residents were barely mobile, said neighbours, spending their time in bed or in wheelchairs, and could not escape. Imad Abu Shedek denied there had been Palestinian missile fire nearby. 'There was no resistance here. The guy upstairs, I heard he was maybe affiliated with Islamic Jihad, but he wasn't there. The first I knew was when I heard the air strike and got here and saw the bodies.' An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was looking into why the centre was targeted." (Disabled Palestinians unable to escape Israeli air strike, Peter Beaumont, theguardian.com, 12/7/14)