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Apr 29 2008

Israel to examine Gaza child deaths

Arab World

By Agencies

Israeli troops withdrew from their latest operation in Gaza early on Tuesday [AFP]

Israel has said it will further investigate the deaths of four Palestinian children and their mother killed during an Israeli air raid on the Gaza Strip.

While Palestinian witnesses blamed the deaths on an Israeli missile, the Israelis say the blast was caused when explosives carried by fighters detonated during the raid.

A day after five members of the Abu Megteg family were killed, the Israeli army vowed to look into the incident.

On Monday, Israel said the explosion in the northern town of Beit Hanoun took place after an air raid hit two men carrying sacks of explosives towards a battle between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters nearby.

But the health ministry said tank shells had been fired at the house where the family were eating breakfast.

Israeli denial

Israel's military denied one of its tanks fired on the house and blamed Hamas fighters for the civilian deaths, condemning the group for launching rocket barrages into Israel from densely populated areas.

"Initial checking shows very conclusively that we are talking about two militants who were very close to the house. Those militants carry on them a very large amount of explosives," Captain Avital Leibowitz, an Israeli army spokesperson, said.

"We targeted those militants since they were a threat to our forces. As a result there was a very large explosion. That explosion actually caused the destruction of the house and unfortunately the tragic event of those dead Palestinians."

The children were killed in the explosion and their mother was taken to hospital but died later.

Later reports suggested that the explosion was caused by a missile from an Israeli drone, targeting an unarmed fighter who had moved to stand outside the house.

'Regret'

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said on Tuesday that Israel "deeply" regreted the deaths.

The events in Gaza are threatening efforts to forge a ceasefire [AFP]

"The state of Israel and the government deeply regret that civilians not involved [in the violence] are affected and even more so when it concerns a mother and her four children," Olmert said in a weekly cabinet meeting.

But he also criticised Hamas for operating in civilian areas.

The events in Gaza threaten Egyptian efforts to forge a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and end violence that is endagering US-brokered talks on Palestinian statehood.

"This aggression does not serve efforts being exerted to achieve calm, and it obstructs the peace process," Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president whose Fatah faction controls only the West Bank, said.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, said a truce in the Gaza Strip was unlikely as Israel was locked in a showdown with Hamas.

A total of seven Palestinians were killed in the latest Israeli operations in Gaza.

Troops withdrew from Gaza overnight, an army spokeswoman said early on Tuesday.