Missile strike kills suspected militant, family members
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza — As midnight approached on Tuesday, Hafez Hamad relaxed on a sofa outside his red-stone house chatting with family, enjoying the warmth of a Gaza summer’s night.
Twelve hours later, his body was taken back to the same spot in Beit Hanoun — wrapped in a shroud and borne on a stretcher — amid scenes of hysterical grieving as family and neighbours lamented his death and that of five others in a missile strike.
Hamad, suspected of belonging to the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, was killed when what is believed to have been an Israeli drone made a direct hit where he and his family sat.
While he had apparently been targeted for his affiliations, the strike also killed his wife, his mother, two brothers — Ibrahim and Mahdi — and a 16-year-old niece.
“I was in the house and ran outside after hearing the explosion and saw his body lying in a pool of blood,” said Hamad Hamad, 22, a cousin. He added that it was the second attempt on his cousin’s life — a previous missile strike in the eight-day war with Israel in November 2012 had destroyed the home, which had subsequently been rebuilt.
It was the latest in a series of strikes on homes of known militants in an Israeli military offensive aimed at combating rocket fire and code-named Operation Protective Edge that have contributed to a rising toll of casualties.
Family members have died or been wounded despite Israel’s stated policy of making warning telephone calls or firing cautionary missile shots before hitting the targeted building. Some appear to have died either because they ignored the warnings or failed to heed them quickly enough.
In the case of the Hamad family, there were conflicting reports about whether adequate warning had been given.
One relative, who declined to give her name, said the attack had come suddenly. But another, Khaldun Hamad, said a light warning shot had been fired at the roof of the house, causing slight damage, four minutes before the strike.
Even worse destruction with similar human consequences could be seen in northern Gaza’s Zeitoun area after a missile struck the home of Mostafa Malaka, 28, a police officer in the Hamas security services.
The strike killed Malaka’s wife, Hana, and three-yearold son Mohammed and reduced the family home to a heap of rubble, much of which had fallen into a large crater.
Malaka and two other children were injured but survived, according to his uncle, Majid Mostafa Malaka, 37.
“There were children around this house. They weren’t firing rockets,” he said.