‘Mistake’ killed family of eight, IDF admits

OUT OF date intelligence led to a home in a Gaza refugee camp being targeted by Israeli jets during last week’s operations. Eight members of the family, including four children living there, were killed.

The airstrike, one of the last operations in the round of violence last week between Gaza and Israel, took place in the early hours of Thursday morning. Initially, Israeli military spokesmen claimed they had hit the home of Rasmi Abu Malhous, a commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets teams. But as the debris was cleared away, the bodies of eight members of one extended family were found. Twelve others were wounded.

The IDF initially said senior commanders in the PIJ often use their homes as weapons storage depots as well but, as the hours passed, it transpired that none of the casualties were apparently connected to PIJ.

According to a report in Haaretz, the home in Deri al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, was on a list of targets prepared by the Intelligence Branch over a year ago but which had not been updated in recent months. No checks were made ahead of the airstrike to establish the location was still related to PIJ activity. An intelligence source told the JC: “targets which have been identified within built-up areas are usually updated on a regular basis to ensure that they are still relevant and the occupants haven’t moved on or changed.

“In this case, it seems that the target was not updated as necessary and the sufficient checks were not carried out to ensure there were no civilians there.”

The IDF Spokesperson Unit belatedly confirmed that “uninvolved civilians” had been hit in the airstrike and that it was carrying out investigations in to the incident.