I found this phrase to be a bit vague: "The Israeli government attempted to deny responsibility..." It seems that if the government was attempting to deny responsiblity then they were denying responsiblity, so the sentence should simply read "The Israeli government denied responsiblity..." If, however, the parts of the Israeli government were denying responsiblity and parts weren't, then this could be characterized as an attempt to deny responsibility, as the article says at present. This would require a little clarification, though, and I doubt its the case.  -Infernallek