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Newspapers Report Israeli Army Admits Killing Palestinian Boys
JERUSLAEM,
Nov. 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Senior Israeli military sources
admitted Israeli soldiers probably planted the explosive device in a Gaza Strip
sand dune that killed five Palestinian schoolchildren, news agencies reported
Saturday.
Israeli newspapers quoted senior military officials as saying that the Israeli
army had invaded the area, which is supposed to be under Palestinian control, to
plant a land mine or other explosive device, according to the British daily
newspaper, The Guardian.
A senior security source gave the Ma'ariv newspaper a detailed account of
how a special army unit invaded the area to plant the device.
"Unfortunately,...innocent children were hurt by it," he said.
Ma'ariv also quoted military sources as saying that a week ago special
forces laid a booby-trap in the area where the blast occurred in an effort to
kill Palestinians who had allegedly been firing mortar bombs at Israeli targets.
Those attacks were regularly responded to by Israeli machine-gun and tank fire,
and several Palestinians have been shot and killed as a result. That led to the
initial conclusion that the boys-all from the same family and under the age of
14-had happened on an unexploded shell.
But Ma'ariv quoted its source as saying a special unit of the Israeli
army crossed into Palestinian-controlled territory last week and set the booby
trap, one typically used by the army.
For his part, Brahim al-Astal, the uncle of two of the victims, reported that he
had spotted an Israeli unit, supported by tanks, operating in the area the night
before the explosion. His account was corroborated by Gen. Abdel-Razek al-Majaida,
chief of the Palestinian security services in the Gaza Strip.
The booby-trap theory was reinforced by the force of the blast, which was bigger
than a normal tank shell and powerful enough to dismember the bodies of five
boys.
During the course of the nearly 14-month-old Palestinian Intifada, or uprising,
against illegal Israeli military occupation, several Palestinians have died as a
result of mysterious explosions. More than 800 Palestinians have been killed
throughout the months of fighting.
Israel admits assassinating Palestinians it suspects of having planned or
carried out attacks. At least 70 Palestinian political figures and leaders have
been killed in the current uprising.
"In light of this incident, this type of operation, in its entirety, should
be reconsidered," said the unidentified military source quoted by Ma'ariv,
implying that the tactic was not new.
A senior army official told Israel radio the killing of the five boys was a
"grave operational mishap".
Yossi Sarid, leader of the left-wing opposition Meretz party, accused Israel's
military spokesman of concealing the facts by saying only that the army had
fired no shells on Thursday.
"Until now, they have spoken about targeted hits," said Sarid,
referring to Israel's strategy of assassinating Palestinian activists.
"Yesterday was absolutely not a targeted killing," he told Israel
radio on Thursday. "It's a residential area. What kind of bombs do you
place in an area where children pass by?"
A centrist ally of hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the deaths
were "appalling and horrible." Dan Meridor told Israel radio: "If
it turns out that they were killed by an explosive device planted by the army,
it cannot be accepted."
"An inquiry has been opened by the army into the circumstances of the
incident and its conclusions will be submitted to the minister," a
statement from the Israeli defense ministry added.
Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh, who was deputy defense minister in the previous
government, told public radio "the deaths of five children are not to be
taken lightly. An inquiry must be held, and the army must give
explanations."
However, emerging criticism failed to prevent the violent death of another child
in Gaza yesterday as Israeli forces opened fire on a Palestinian protest
following the funeral of the five schoolchildren. They killed a 15-year-old and
wounded five others, reported The Guardian.
Thousands of mourners followed the small coffins bearing the remains of the five
boys through the streets of Khan Yunis on Friday.
The killing of the boys - two sets of brothers and a cousin from the same
family, all aged between six and 14 - has inflamed the atmosphere ahead of the
arrival Sunday of two U. S. envoys charged with negotiating a durable
ceasefire.
The Palestinian boys were killed as they walked to school on Thursday along a
dune near the illegal Jewish settlement of Gush Katif.
While Ben Eliezer on Friday ordered an investigation, Palestinian security chief
Gen. Abdel Razak Majaidah called for an international investigation.
Majaidah said the blast that killed the five boys, which showered shrapnel for
30 yards, was too powerful to have been caused by an unexploded tank shell, as
previously thought. He also said the shrapnel in the boys' bodies was not from a
shell.
Instead, it appeared as if Israeli military forces had planted an explosive
device in the dunes, reported The Guardian.
"Witnesses saw an Israeli army bulldozer working near that area the day
before," Majaidah said.
In another military escalation, Israeli helicopters killed two Palestinians
after firing missiles at a Palestinian car near the West Bank city of Nablus on
Friday.
Meanwhile, six Palestinian fathers from southern Gaza filed war crimes charges
against Sharon in a Belgian court on Friday. Their move came only days before a
court decision on whether to indict the Israeli prime minister for the 1982
Sabra and Shatila refugees camps massacres near Beirut.
A Belgian court has summoned Sharon to appear Nov. 28 concerning the civil suits
over his role in the massacres of as many as 2,000 Palestinian refugees.
Twenty-three Palestinian victims of the massacres brought the civil complaint
against the Israeli premier.
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