Reports: Israel Carried Out Gaza Strike That Killed 5 Minors

JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian human rights group and an Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday that an explosion at a cemetery that killed five Palestinian children during the latest Gaza riot was caused by an Israeli airstrike and not by an errant Palestinian rocket. .

It was one of a series of explosions during the fighting that did not show the telltale signs of an Israeli F-16 or drone attack, and which the Israeli military said. could have been caused by missed rockets by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.

The five children, aged between 4 and 16, had gathered at their grandfather’s grave in the local cemetery, one of the few open spaces in the crowded Jebaliya refugee camp, on August 7, hours before the end of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. three days of intense fighting.

Residents said a shell fell from the air and exploded in the cemetery. When The Associated Press visited the next day, it saw none of the telltale signs of an airstrike by an Israeli F-16 or drone, heightening suspicions that the blast was caused by an errant rocket. Israel said at the time that it was investigating the incident.

On Tuesday, the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said its investigation of the shrapnel and other evidence led it to conclude the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike.

“This was a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft,” said Raja Sourani, the group’s director, while showing images of what he said was a fragment showing the missile’s serial number.

Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted unnamed Israeli defense officials as saying that the military investigation had concluded that the five were killed in an Israeli strike.

When asked about the Haaretz story, the military said it was still looking into the event. He said that during the latest round of fighting, he targeted militant infrastructure and “made every feasible effort to minimize, as much as possible, damage to civilians and civilian property.”

The latest fighting in Gaza began with a wave of Israeli airstrikes on August 5 that killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander. as well as several civilians. Israel said it was responding to an imminent threat days after the arrest of a senior Islamic Jihad leader in the occupied West Bank.

Over the next three days, Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes along the narrow, populated coastline. Islamic Jihad fired some 1,100 rockets at Israel, about 200 of which missed and landed inside Gaza, according to the Israeli military.

Hamas, a larger and more militarily advanced group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, did not participate in this round of fighting. apparently to keep understandings with Israel which have led to a relaxation of the blockade imposed on the territory by Israel and Egypt after they took power. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several minor skirmishes in the last 15 years.

A total of 49 Palestinians were killed in the latest fighting, including 17 children. Palestinian rights groups say at least 36 people were killed in the Israeli airstrikes, with investigations still ongoing into the deaths of another 13. No Israelis were killed or seriously injured.

The Israeli army said early estimates showed that at least 20 of the dead were militants, with 14 people killed by errant rocket fire from Islamic Jihad. That count did not include the five killed in the Jebaliya cemetery.

The day before the explosion at the cemetery, seven people were killed by an explosion on a busy street elsewhere in Jebaliya. The Israeli army blamed it on a failed rocket fire by Islamic Jihad and said the army had not carried out any attacks in the area at the time. The military later released a video that appeared to show a militant rocket failing.

Video footage from the aftermath of that explosion showed what appeared to be a rocket casing sticking out of the ground. When the AP visited the site, the carcass was gone and the hole had been filled. Palestinians are often willing to show evidence of Israeli air strikes to the international media.

Palestinians with direct knowledge of the suspicious incidents have been reluctant to speak out officially. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry ordered journalists not to report on rocket firing failures. in media guidelines that were rescinded after an outcry from the foreign media.

Many Palestinians view Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups as freedom fighters resisting decades of Israeli military rule, and believe that criticism of those groups undermines the fight for independence. Israel and Western countries consider them terrorist organizations because they have carried out dozens of deadly attacks against Israeli civilians.

The four Gaza wars have killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom were killed in Israeli attacks. More than half were civilians, according to the UN More than 100 people have been killed on the Israeli side, including civilians, soldiers and foreign residents.

SHARE: