Add NBC to the list of news organizations that have shown a clip of two doctors, one of whom is the controversial pro-9/11 Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert, supposedly trying to revive a deceased Palestinian boy at Shifa Hospital in Gaza – a scene which some critics charge appears staged. Last week, on the Sunday, January 4, NBC Nightly News, correspondent Richard Engel filed a report in which he recounted the story of a 12-year-old boy, Mahmoud Basrowi, the brother of "Ashraf, a Gaza-based television producer contracted by NBC News," as Ashraf claimed his brother was killed while playing on his family’s roof "when the house was hit by an Israeli shell or rocket."
Narrated Engel:
But in the Gaza Strip now, streets are mostly empty, fuel is running out and there's no electricity. Hospital officials say at least 430 Palestinians have been killed, 30 just today, including 12-year-old Mahmoud Basrowi. His family says the boy was playing on his rooftop with a cousin when the house was hit by an Israeli shell or rocket. Two doctors, one a volunteer from Norway, tried to save Mahmoud. Wrapped in a white funeral shroud, Mahmoud was taken by his brother Ashraf, a Gaza-based television producer contracted by NBC News.
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After a clip of Ashraf saying he thought his brother would be safe on the roof, Engel continued: "Ashraf buried his brother just hours after he was killed. Tonight an Israeli spokesman said Israel does not target civilians and that Hamas is to blame because it continues to fire rockets from cities."
Below is a complete transcript of the story from the Sunday, January 4, NBC Nightly News:
LESTER HOLT: Now to our other major story, the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. A day after its tanks rolled across the border, Israeli troops tonight have virtually surrounded Gaza City and are engaged in close-range fighting with Hamas militants. Caught in the middle, civilians on both sides, with Palestinian casualties continuing to mount. NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is in Sderot, Israel, near the Gaza border. Richard, what’s the latest?
RICHARD ENGEL: Good evening, Lester. This conflict is still very much under way. As we speak right now, I can hear Israeli drones in the sky. We've heard several loud explosions in Gaza City behind me. I just heard another one of them right now. Israel says during its first full day of its ground offensive, its forces killed several dozen Hamas militants. The Israeli military today dug in. Several thousand troops and tanks, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery, blocked the main highways in Gaza, divided the territory in two, and surrounded Gaza City. The Israeli air force says it has bombed more than 1,000 Hamas rocket launch sites, safe houses and smuggling tunnels since the offensive began nine days ago.
MARK REGEV, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: We are faced with a Hamas regime that tore up the cease-fire, that initiated rocket barrage after rocket barrage against our civilian population in the South, and we are forced to act to defend our people.
ENGEL: But in the Gaza Strip now, streets are mostly empty, fuel is running out and there's no electricity. Hospital officials say at least 430 Palestinians have been killed, 30 just today, including 12-year-old Mahmoud Basrowi. His family says the boy was playing on his rooftop with a cousin when the house was hit by an Israeli shell or rocket. Two doctors, one a volunteer from Norway, tried to save Mahmoud. Wrapped in a white funeral shroud, Mahmoud was taken by his brother Ashraf, a Gaza-based television producer contracted by NBC News. At his family home, Ashraf told his relatives what happened.
ASHRAF: I didn't believe that. We prevent our children to go to streets because it is not safe to go there. And then just so, we ask them to stay here in the home and play here in this roof because it is safe. We are surrounded with high buildings.
ENGEL: Ashraf buried his brother just hours after he was killed. Tonight an Israeli spokesman said Israel does not target civilians and that Hamas is to blame because it continues to fire rockets from cities. Israelis are taking casualties, too. At least one soldier has been killed, more than 40 injured. And Hamas vows to keep fighting. Its television station yesterday broadcast threats. ‘Israeli soldiers will go home in coffins,' it said. But today Israeli soldiers took over that Hamas TV station and used it to broadcast warnings that Hamas leaders are the ones being targeted. But for the 1.5 million people in Gaza tonight, nowhere feels safe. Israel seems to be preparing for an extended conflict, and today called up thousands more reservists.
—Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
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gaza
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 12:32 ET by east tennessee johnDid it ever occur to the morons at CNN, (certainly not news) or NBC and its associates that if Hamas wasn't sending rockets, initally, Israel wouldn't have to try and stop them? Cause/effect.
It probably does occur to
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 12:33 ET by taterIt probably does occur to them...but it doesn't fit in with their "hate America first" ideology.
www.theholyrosary.org
"There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we can not resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary." -Sister Lucia
...or their "hate Israel
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 12:55 ET by mattm...or their "hate Israel first" ideology.
To change any of this
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 13:08 ET by cocodrieTo change any of this one would have to think. Thinking is not one of the employment requirements at CNN.
Yet another new group who is
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 12:37 ET by thebutlerdiditYet another new group who is either lazy or blind to the faults of the Hamas in Pakistan. If they even bothered to google old Mads, they could find out quite a bit of where his allegances lie. I am not surprised that they played this, they are a incestuous group that appear to share one brain.
Bringing the government in to run Wall Street is like saying, "Dad burned the dinner, let's get the dog to cook." PJ O'Rourke
uhhh
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 13:32 ET by audio357Playing on the roof is safe????? Safer than what? Playing around the rocket launch sites? Goodness..
honesty is the best policy... unless your running for office.
The MSM is braindead
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 14:22 ET by EurikaAnyone with half a brain can see that the 'death' is a fake, since when is the mourning of Arab people so calm and serene.....
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate and tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." -Samuel Adams
"Gaza Scrubs",
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 14:30 ET by SickofLibs"Gaza Scrubs", starring Mahmoud Basrowi as the dead kid, and Allie Akbar as the ineffectual chest thumping 'doctor'.
In this episode, Father tells the boys if you want to play Kill The Dirty Jew, do it on the roof. Things go wrong when the boys realize Father forgot missiles follow a trajectory and the roof is an even worse place to play than the street.
Richard Engel plays the part of the intrepid reporter who passes along Palestinian propaganda despite knowing full well it has been debunked days before.
Liberal Media's Inner Terrorist
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 14:36 ET by deerjerkydaveIf Hamas would just lay down their fire arms the violence would cease. It's that simple. Unless of course one's view is that Israel does not have a right to exist. But even that doesn't justify unprovoked rocket attacks by Hamas aimed at civilians. It's not tactical, it's blood thirsty, and there is no justification for it. That the liberal media would even attempt to defend it demonstrates their "inner-terrorist" and their anti-semitism.
Gaza Hospital
Mon, 01/12/2009 - 16:32 ET by sccIs this the hospital where Hamas has located ( in a bunker underground ) it's command and control center ??????