Hamas recants on apology for harming Israeli civilians
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Hamas government in Gaza yesterday backtracked on its apology earlier this week in which it expressed regret for harming Israeli civilians in rocket attacks.
The apology had signaled a rare deviation from Hamas' violent ideology, and the subsequent zigzag reflects the Islamic militants' conflicting objectives.
Hamas, which seized Gaza by force in 2007, is trying to reach out to the West in hopes of winning recognition and getting Israel to lift its blockade. However, Hamas is also reluctant to discard its violent ideology for fear of losing credibility at home.
The apology for the rockets was part of the Hamas government's response to a UN report that alleged both Hamas and Israel committed war crimes during Israel's three-week Gaza offensive last winter.
The UN investigators, headed by jurist Richard Goldstone, accused Hamas of firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians. The UN report also said Israel used disproportionate force and deliberately targeted civilians. Some 1,400 Gazans were killed, among them hundreds of civilians, as well as 13 Israelis.
During the war, Gaza militants fired some 800 rockets and mortar shells into Israel, killing three Israeli civilians and wounding about 80.
Hamas wrote to the UN that its primitive rockets were not intended to hit civilians, but often strayed from their course. It said the rockets were meant to defend Gazans against Israeli military strikes, but also maintained that the Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation.
"We apologize for any harm that might have come to Israeli civilians," the Hamas government wrote.
Saturday, the government claimed the response to the UN was misinterpreted.
"The report that was submitted regarding the Goldstone report does not include any apologies and what took place was an incorrect interpretation of some of its wording," the government said in a statement. It did not attempt to explain the contradiction.
Israel rejected Hamas' initial apology.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
