Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Military officials: Dropping bomb from F-16 was mistaken

   Last update - 13:33 24/07/2002
Military officials: Dropping bomb from F-16 was mistaken
By Aluf Benn and Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondents, and Ha'aretz Service
 Two Palestinians on Wednesday who were injured in the IDF strike in Gaza
the previous day in which the Hamas military commander and 13 civilians were
killed.
(Photo: AP)
Amid scathing international criticism of the Gaza air strike that killed the
commander of the military wing of Hamas but also killed 13 civilians
including nine children, Israeli military officials have said that it was a
mistaken decision to have dropped a one-ton bomb from an F-16 warplane in
order to assassinate the man who headed Israel's most-wanted list.
Senior officials said Wednesday that had Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer known that innocents were in the
vicinity of the attack, they would have put off the assassination of Hamas
military chief Saleh Shehadeh.
On Tuesday Sharon termed the killing of Shehadeh and his deputy a "great
success", although voicing regret at the deaths of innocents.
But late on Tuesday, the IDF and the Shin Bet security service opened
investigations into the failures of the Air Force raid. Army Radio said
Wednesday that the investigations would focus on the process that led
intelligence officers to conclude that Shehadeh was alone in the building.
Military sources, however, said the central defect in the operation was the
decision to use an F-16 warplane, which dropped a one-ton bomb on the house
in which Shehadeh was staying, a structure in the heart of a densely
populated residential area.
Only four of those killed were in the house itself. Most of the victims were
in neighboring buildings.
In an assessment presented to the political echelon prior to the decision to
attack, security authorities said the bomb would have a "minor effect" on
nearby buildings.
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Haim Ramon said
Wednesday that while Israeli intelligence had failed in informing Sharon and
Ben-Eliezer that Shehadeh was alone at the time the operation was launched,
"The central error was that we used weaponry that anyone involved in the
decision making process should have known could harm innocent people living
in the area."
Ramon, a potential political rival to both Sharon and Ben-Eliezer, said that
discussion by the wider cabinet could have foreseen the results of the
Monday night air strike.
"I am surprised by the senior political echelon," Ramon told Israel Radio.
"I have no doubt that it knew of the risks of carrying out the operation
using a one-ton bomb at the time that it made the decision, and despite this
it took the risk."
The IDF does not simply operate an F-16 jet in the heart of a populated area
without the authorization of the political echelon, Ramon continued. "To my
knowledge, authorization has never been given in the past to carrying out an
operation of this type - and certainly not with armaments such as these - in
the heart of a population which is not taking part in terrorism."
Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said that the assassination operation
had been put off several times in the past, when intelligence data showed
that the operation would put civilians at risk.
"Anyone who thinks or imagines that the prime minister, the defense
minister, or the army chief of staff would have decided on and approved
carrying out this attack in this place knowing that this would harm innocent
people, simply has no idea what he is talking about."
Leading international criticism of the assassination, U.S. White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "This heavy-handed action does not contribute
to peace." He added that the message had been conveyed to Israel by the
American embassy in Tel Aviv.
"This is not only a moral question," Ramon said. "It is a substantive
question in the struggle against terrorism. Without international support in
general and U.S. backing in particular, we don't have a free hand to act
against terrorists and terrorism."
Dovish Labor MK Yossi Beilin, currently in Washington, said he believed
Israeli leaders when they said they would have cancelled the raid rather
than harm civilians.
"But this does not lighten the severity of the act itself. The very fact of
cerrying out 'liquidations' in a democratic country in which there is no
death penalty, is very, very questionable, and must be limited to cases in
which we are really intervening in a 'ticking bomb'. This, regrettably, was
not the case here," Beilin said.
"Democratic countries generally do not do things of this nature, and the
price we are paying today among the best of our friends is very, very high,
and is superfluous."
President Moshe Katsav said Wednesday of the casualties that "it truly pains
the heart to see children that were killed and seriously injured. That was
not our intention. That is not us. This is not our policy. Mistakes happen,
and this was a mistake."

nearby buildings.
Questo se gli edifici fossero stati costruiti secondo criteri
occidentali probabilmente.  Un errore di valutazione.
-Stefano