The Gaza beach bombing libel has now been definitively debunked and denied: Israel says it didn’t cause deadly blast.

So who does the media consult when they need an opinion? The George Soros-funded far-left “NGO” Human Rights Watch and their shill Mark Garlasco, who (surprise!) think Israel is lying: Rights group refutes Israeli claim over Gaza beach deaths.

According to the Israeli inquiry, the shrapnel removed from Palestinians wounded in the incident and treated in Israel did not match the material used in Israeli ammunition.

A military analyst from the New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that the explosion was “most likely” the result of Israeli shelling.

“It is my contention that the most likely scenario is that Israeli shelling hit the area,” Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon advisor, told journalists in Gaza City.

This follows the mainstream media’s well-worn template of using commentary from radical left mouthpieces and describing them as experts, without mentioning their extremist agenda.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, meanwhile, is befuddled, bemused, and bewildered that a mine ended up on a beach! I mean, who’s ever heard of that?

And UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described as “odd” the suggestion by the Israeli investigation.

“To find a mine on the beach is rather odd,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters.

Here’s more about Marc Garlasco and his connections to the shadowy Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity group, at Never Yet Melted.

UPDATE at 6/13/06 5:12:48 pm:

The Independent has more details on Garlasco’s claims, with a headline that leaves little doubt where the Independent stands: Revealed: the shrapnel evidence that points to Israel’s guilt. (Note: the headline is much more definite about “Israel’s guilt” than Garlasco, who hedges his comments.)

Mr Garlasco produced a four to five-inch, mainly blackened shell fragment which he collected about 100 yards from the scene of the explosion and in which the figures 55 and the letters “mm” are clearly discernible. While acknowledging that this was not itself definite proof that the shell had killed the Palestinians he said some fragments and shrapnel which the Palestinian police explosives department say they took from the scene where the victims were killed were definitely from a 155mm shell.

Mr Garlasco who accompanied a small group of journalists to the Beit Lahia beach, pointed to three separate craters, each covered in a whitish powder, which he said were fresh, one of which was at the spot where witnesses agree the fatal blast occurred, and the two others separated it from it by about 120 and 250 yards. Mr Garlasco added: “It would be a really ridiculous coincidence if there is active shelling and then suddenly an IED [improvised explosive device] goes off.”

I suppose it would be rude to point out that the Palestinians have had three days to alter the scene and plant evidence, after refusing to cooperate with Israel’s investigation? Garlasco’s “expert opinion” is worthless at this point, with the scene so hopelessly compromised.