Contrary to yesterday’s report, the anti-Israel, anti-America, George Soros-funded Human Rights Watch is not backing down on their claims about the Gaza beach bombing. In fact, they’re stepping up their attacks: Rights group says Israel beach death probe not credible.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - A US-based rights group has accused Israel of ignoring evidence and conducting an incomplete investigation into the deaths of eight Palestinian civilians, demanding an international inquiry.

“The Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) investigation of the Gaza beach explosion that killed eight Palestinian civilians and wounded dozens is incomplete because it excludes important evidence,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday.

The New York-based group released the statement Tuesday after meeting Meir Klifi, the general responsible for the army’s internal inquiry into the June 9 beach deaths.

“An investigation that refuses to look at contradictory evidence can hardly be considered credible,” said Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst at HRW. “The IDF’s partisan approach highlights the need for an independent, international investigation.”

An Israeli army inquiry has cleared the military of any wrongdoing and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rejected calls for an international investigation.

Human Rights Watch said the army’s conclusion that it was not responsible for the deaths was based “exclusively” on information gathered by the IDF and excluded all evidence gathered by other sources.

The group, which unlike the army conducted its own investigation at the scene of the deaths, believes that the blast was caused by an Israeli shell fired several hours earlier and which later exploded.

Unbelievable. The Palestinians refused to allow the Israelis to investigate the scene at the time of the incident, and Human Rights Watch shill Marc Garlasco only got there several days afterward, giving the Palestinians more than enough time to alter the scene and plant false evidence. (Not that the scrupulously honest Palestinians would ever do such a thing, of course.)

And none of these facts are reported.

UPDATE at 6/21/06 8:42:59 am:

Klifi: IDF definitely not behind Gaza beach blast.

The blast on a Gaza beach 12 days ago that killed seven Palestinian civilians was definitely not caused by IDF shelling, Maj.-Gen. Meir Klifi, head of the IDF inquiry commission announced at a news conference on Wednesday.

“The examination of a second piece of shrapnel retrieved from the body of a boy who was wounded in the blast unequivocally shows that the explosion was not caused by a 155 mm artillery shell”, said Klifi, adding that it came from a different type of ammunition used by the IDF.

Klifi said that the commission would continue to investigate what was behind the explosion.
“There is a possibility that the explosion was caused by an unexploded IDF artillery shell that landed on the beach weeks or months ago and it is also possible that the blast was caused by an explosive device planted by Palestinian terrorist group,” he said.