The Israelis made very sure indeed to keep any observers or reporters or camera crews well away from whatever was going on.

In the light of that, how is it possible not to be deeply suspicious of anything the Israeli government and military say at this time?

There desperately needs to be a proper independent investigation. No botched up effort, with an Israeli equivalent of Justice Widgery, the judge who carried out the totally discredited whitewash of Bloody Sunday.

It is going to be terribly hard to do, and every days delay makes it harder to get at the truth, and provides more opportunity for people to tamper with the evidence. But whatever the actual truth may be, it cannot, please God, be as bad as the stories that will become accepted as the truth, in the absence of a proper investigation.