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[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]
Intentionally shelling the school would be 100% wrong but the reports show this is not necessarily what happened. Its currently under investigation

1. Those rockets have actually gone "missing"
2. UNWRA spokesperson admits that Hamas was shooting rockets in the area and those rockets might have hit the school
3. IDF says a shell from a tank may have misfired hitting the school unintentionally
4. Hamas militants were shooting from that area and there was a lot of firefight between them and IDF[/quote]

Taking the IDF Spokesperson at his word:

https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson/status/492355858680926208

Hamas fired from a populated area near an UNRWA shelter & prevented civilians from evacuating after we sent warnings. http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/07/24/hamas/ …

The link goes to here:

http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/07/24/hamas/

The blog post is amazing in it's inability to decide on a story, but part of it says:

"In recent days, Hamas has fired rockets from an area of Beit Hanoun where an UNRWA shelter is located. Last night, the Israel Defense Forces told the Red Cross to evacuate civilians from UNRWA’s shelter in Beit Hanoun between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. today. UNRWA and the Red Cross received the message."

So, the Israelis seem to be saying that the school was a legitimate target and they had warned UNRWA to evacuate. Therefore, one must assume the building was purposefully targeted.

Then, the blog post continues:

"Also today, several rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel fell short and hit Beit Hanoun."

So, we are supposed to believe that coincidentally with the Israelis warning UNRWA to leave, the Palestinians accidentally shelled the school.

Also, adding to the story, is this tweet from Richard Engle:

https://twitter.com/RichardEngel/status/492344456654249984

"UNRWA chief tells us agency was not given any warning before strikes on school."

So, despite half a blog post devoted to saying UNRWA was warned to leave the school, UNRWA says it wasn't warned.

As far as I can tell, the Israeli position is "our attack was totally justified and we did everything we could do to make sure the school was empty, but the rockets were fired by someone else."

Alternatively, if you parse the sentence, "Also today, several rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel fell short and hit Beit Hanoun", you will notice that it is written in passive voice. So, since Israeli warships are located in the Mediterranean Sea, they could have theoretically have launched rockets aimed at targets in Gaza. Those rockets would have been fired "toward Israel", though with no intention of going that far. So, Israel could be hinting that it's own rockets fell short. In which case, Israel's argument would be that this was an accident. So, Israel has suggested at least three possibilities for what happened, but in any case it is not to blame.
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