World Jewish News

the Associated Press ran a correction to the caption of a photo of al-Masharawi holding his 11-month-old death son saying the child was killed by an Israeli airstrike, after the United Nations found a Hamas rocket was to blame for the killing.

Death of 11-month-old Palestinian child during ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’ :UN reporte exonerates Israeli army

The United Nations confirmed that the death of Gaza-based BBC Arabic service journalist Jihad al-Mishrawi’s infant son, which was widely blamed on the Israeli army offensive during last November’s ’Operation Pillar of Defense’, was in fact the result of a Hamas rocket fire.
The iconic photograph of Mishrawi cradling and morning was extensively broadcast and printed – landing on the front page of major newspapers across the globe – and used by human rights organizations to generate widespread and heated criticism of the Israeli campaign.
BBC journalists had tweeted that an Israeli airstrike of November 14 claimed the lives of the 19 year-old sister-in-law, 11 month-old child and brother of the BBC photo editor during the hostilities, which was disproved by the UN following close monitoring of the case.
An advance preview of the UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay’s annual report, due to be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 18, exonerates the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) of responsibility for the killing of the 11 month-old child, as it concluded that the widely-reported death was likely the product of “a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel”.
The UN report, while criticizing Israel for “the apparent failure of the IDF to respect the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions, as required by humanitarian law”, also reaches the following conclusion : « Palestinian armed groups continuously violated international humanitarian law, by launching indiscriminate attacks on Israel and by attacking civilians, thereby disregarding the principle of distinction. The armed groups failed to take all feasible precautions in attacks, in particular by launching rockets from populated areas, which put the population at grave risk. Furthermore, several Palestinians were killed by rockets launched by the armed groups that fell short and landed in the Gaza Strip. »
“Most rockets fired by the armed groups did not seem to be directed at a specific military objective,” the report concluded.
“While certain Palestinian armed actors cited the limits of their military arsenals as a reason for failing to precisely attack military targets, the military capacity of the conflicting parties is irrelevant to their duty, under international humanitarian law, to take all feasible measures to avoid loss among civilians and damage to civilian property. », it added.
The launching of rocket attacks from populated areas within Gaza constituted a further violation of customary international humanitarian law, it said, as it accused Palestinian groups of “greatly heightening” the exposure its civilian community to the inherent risks of military operations.
As a result of the UN annoucement, the Associated Press ran a correction to the caption of the photo of al-Masharawi holding his 11-month-old death son saying the child was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
The photograph was picked up by major media outlets in the world and widely shared on social media along with a caption saying that baby was killed by an Israeli airstrike while a Hamas rocket was to blame.
Israel’s supporters said the photo was an example of the media’s rush to judge the Jewish state, while Palestinians said the snapshot was an example of Israeli aggression.

EJP