Quotes of the Mornning: Oops

“Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday expressed ‘deep regret’ after an Israeli bomb destroyed a U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon, killing three observers and leaving another feared dead.
U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Israel appeared to have struck the site deliberately, but Olmert said the strike had been a mistake. The Israeli premier spoke on the phone with Annan, expressing dismay over Annan’s accusation and promising a thorough investigation, according to Olmert’s office.
The bomb made a direct hit on the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.”
-Associated Press, July 26, 2006

“Oops. Sorry about those three or four dead U.N. observers. Just a little goof. So sorry. It isn’t like Israel would deliberately target the people who are there to try to help people.”
-Skippy

“The Israel Defense Forces said last night that Israeli fire hit an ambulance during fighting in the Qana area, east of Tyre. ‘The IDF never intentionally targets civilians, much less ambulances,’ a spokesman said. ``It should be noted that the area in which the incident took place is one from which there is intensive missile fire" directed toward Israel.
Lebanese officials have complained that Israel has bombed indiscriminately, struck fleeing civilians, and targeted trucks carrying aid. Bomb craters have left many roads impassable south of the Litani River, a region that is home to 400,000 people. Roads leading out of cities including Tyre, Nabatiyeh, and Tebnine have come under fire.
‘We are obliged to go out and save people,’ said Imad Hillal, 38, the second-in-command at the Tyre branch of the Red Cross. ‘We count on Israel to respect the neutrality of the Red Cross, but they don't.’
Israel says it is attacking Hezbollah militia targets in southern Lebanon that have fired hundreds of Katyusha rockets at civilian population centers in Israel over the 13-day conflict.”
-Boston Globe, July 25, 2006

“Hey, they aren’t targeting ambulances. They promise. They’re just targeting the civilian centers where ambulances tend to be because of all of the casualties.”
-Skippy

“Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions in populated areas of Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today. Researchers on the ground in Lebanon confirmed that a cluster munitions attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed one and wounded at least 12 civilians, including seven children. Human Rights Watch researchers also photographed cluster munitions in the arsenal of Israeli artillery teams on the Israel-Lebanon border.”
-Human Rights Watch, July 24, 2006

“See? That’s probably it. They are hitting the ambulances because they are firing cluster bombs. The type of cluster bombs used contain about 88 explosive devices in each one, so one of those is bound to hit an ambulance once in a while. They weren’t targeting the ambulances. They were targeting the civilian population. Completely different. It isn’t like these civilians weren’t warned. They knew the dangers when they decided to be Lebanese.”
-Skippy

“Hezbollah guerrillas fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday afternoon, killing a man in the town of Nahariya and setting fire to the top of a two-story apartment building.
At least 100 rockets fell into Israel, hitting a string of towns, including the city of Haifa.
More than 750 rockets have hit Israel since the violence began, forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to take cover in underground shelters.
Some 500,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon by the violence, according to the U.N.'s most recent estimate.”
-Associated Press, July 19, 2006

“And the violence continues on both sides. Idiots. Stupid, murderous idiots.”
-Skippy