Jerusalem24 – Israeli military officials have confirmed they were responsible for the death of five Palestinian children killed on the last day of Israel’s recent bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, an army inquiry into the attack on the Falluja cemetery on 7 August found that Israel was to blame.
At the time of the attack, the Israeli army and media blamed the deaths on a rogue Islamic Jihad rocket.
In an earlier version of its article on the casualties of the aggression on Gaza, Haaretz reported that four cousins were killed while they sat next to their grandfather’s grave along with their friend.
The five children were:
- 4-year-old Jamil Nijm Jamil Nijm
- 13-year-old Jamil Ihab Nijm
- 16-year-old Hamed Haidar Hamed Nijm
- 16-year-old Muhammed Salah Nijm
- 16-year-old Nazmi Fayez Abdulhadi Abukarsh
An updated version of the Haaretz report (which did not indicate edits have been made) said that the five children were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
+972 Magazine, a non-profit magazine run by Palestinians and Israeli journalists, reported that former Israeli soldiers had revealed how the army authorizes strikes in Gaza knowing civilians will be killed, “as long as the number is deemed low enough.”
The Israeli news site Ynet quoted army officials as saying that the ratio between “non-combatants” and combatants killed was “the best of all the operations” against Gaza.
Of the 49 Palestinians killed during Israel’s latest attack, Israel confirmed it killed 35, of which at least 22 were civilians including 10 children.
A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad brokered by Egypt, amongst others, was implemented at 11.30 pm Sunday 7 August.
