Children were at a cemetery when killed by an Israeli airstrike.
electronicintifada.net
The Israeli military admitted it killed five Palestinian children in Gaza earlier this month after initially claiming the atrocity was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket that fell short.
The explosion took place around 7 pm on 7 August at the al-Fallujah cemetery west of the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The children killed in the Israeli attack were Jamil Najmuddin Jamil Najim, 3, Jamil Ihab Jamil Najim, 13, Nathmi Fayez Abdulhadi Abu Karsh, 15, Hamed Haidar Hamed Najim, 16, and 16-year-old Muhammad Salah Hamed Najim,
according to an investigation by Defense for Children International-Palestine.
They were among the 17 children killed during
Israel’s three-day military attack on Gaza that left almost 50 people in Gaza dead and more than 360 injured.
Palestinian armed groups were firing rockets as Israeli military drones flew overhead, DCIP reported. The group was therefore unable to determine the cause of the explosion.
“Immediately after their deaths, several senior officers said the five were most likely killed by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket,” Tel Aviv newspaper
Haaretz reported.
“Despite their off-the-record assessments, senior IDF officers never commented publicly about who was responsible,” according to
Haaretz.
But the newspaper said that several unnamed military sources have now confirmed that the 7 August explosion was caused by an Israeli airstrike.