CAIRO: The shrapnel, resulting from Israeli shelling, that wounded two Egyptian soldiers and two children near the Egypt-Gaza border is “friendly fire, said prominent columnist Fahmy Howeidy in a sarcastic commentary on what he described as the double standards of Egyptian media.
In his column in Kuwait’s daily Al-Ro’ya, former Al Ahram writer criticized state-run media coverage of the Egyptian soldier who was killed in an exchange of fire with Palestinians near the border and that of those wounded by Israeli shelling near the Egyptian border.
In the first incident, Howeidy explained that the part about and exchange of fire and the death of one Palestinian and the wounding of 10 was mostly left out by state-media coverage. He said the story gradually turned from exchange of fire into an assassination attempt. The perpetrators turned from Palestinians into “Hamas cadres.
On the contrary of these direct references to “premeditated murder that aimed at agitating the masses against Hamas, Howeidy said that state-run papers tried to tone down the injuries incurred by Israeli shelling, describing them as “accidental.
Howeidy said that state-run media wanted to deny international reports that Israel violated Egypt’s airspace, by saying that the two soldiers and two children were wounded by shelling that targeted tunnels 400 meters away from the Egyptian border.
State media, he continued, also ignored mentioning that these four were seriously injured, in the head and back.
“It doesn’t need much effort to realize that the extreme leniency was intentional in the coverage of the Israeli shelling, to an extent in which the assault on Egyptian sovereignty was overlooked, he wrote. “They stressed that it was a mistake, a justifiable one.
“At the same time, the intentional agitation against Hamas was clear in contaminating the news about the exchange of fire between a group of Palestinians and Egyptian board guards. There is no explanation except that those who play around with news considered Israeli shelling friendly fire, but Palestinians and Hamas are something else.
Howeidy’s articles in state-run Al Ahram were repeatedly banned several times. One of his banned articles argues that the recent coup by the Islamic resistance group Hamas in Gaza was provoked by Israeli and US forces in June 2007.
