Oops!

Oops! Well after denying with all their might that the shells that took the lives of a family of five and two other innocent people who were enjoying a “somewhat” normal day on the beach in Gaza, Israel is now saying that one of their old tank shells may have been the culprit of pain, suffering and death.

Israel went all out to deny that the explosion could have been their fault. They accused Hamas of planting the explosive devices in the sand to prevent Israeli forces from coming onto the beach. But alas, as they say in The National Football League: “Upon further review we have found that in fact this was an Israeli tank shell.”

What needs to happen is what Human Rights Watch, The Palestinians and even Kofi Annan have called for is an independent investigation of the incident.

Israel cannot afford to keep doing these so-called “Internal investigations.” If Israel is so confident of the “Purity of Arms” of it’s army then nothing should come of the external investigation.

And while we are at it, let’s let the independent investigators look into the incident that occurred on Tuesday June 13th when Israel extra-judicially killed 11 people nine of who were civilians.

Some would argue that the Israeli army has a policy of targeting civilians. I for one have not reached this conclusion, but I do know that the years I spent living in Palestine have shown me that what the outside World, especially those of us from the West, fail to see is that there needs to be a third party intermediary to resolve this 58 year old conflict.

It is imperative that the World put the same amount of pressure if not more upon Israel (as the occupying power), as they do with the Palestinians to try and find a way that both parties can co-exist with each other.

No one wants to relive the horrors of what little Huda went through on the beach Friday of screaming “Ya Baba! Ya Baba!” No one wants to see another suicide bombing and the screaming mass of innocent Israeli bystanders lying strewn on the ground.

No one.