Sunday, March 13, 2016

But Why Are They Rare? And Why Not 'Allegedly'?

In the NYTimes, I read:

Israel struck at Hamas military bases in the Gaza Strip overnight, killing a 10-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister, a Palestinian official said on Saturday. The airstrikes came after Palestinian militants fired rockets toward Israeli border communities late Friday. 
One of the airstrikes targeted a Hamas base in northwestern Gaza, and shrapnel hit a nearby home, killing the boy,..Suleiman Abu Khoussa, 50, the children’s father, said the family was sleeping when the missile struck nearby and the shelter began falling apart.

“Their mother was screaming, ‘The children are dead, the children are dead,’ ” he said in a telephone interview. “I went and I saw them covered in blood.”

The last fatalities in Gaza from an Israeli airstrike in response to rocket fire occurred in October, when a pregnant Palestinian woman and a toddler were killed. But such deaths have been rare since a cease-fire ended the fighting in 2014, and the Gaza Strip had remained largely quiet.

A.  Why not "allegedly killed"?

B.  Why not "according to a Palestinian official"?  Or better, "a "Hamas official"?

C.  Why no mention of any or no casualties or damage on the Israeli side?

D.  At least it was noted that the target was a Hamas base.

E.  But why not note that Israeli airstrikes that kill, and the reason for deaths being "rare" if at all, are because...Hamas rarely fires rockets at Israeli civilian targets?

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