After previously blaming Islamic Jihad fighters Israeli army officials admitted on Tuesday that an Israeli airstrike was responsible for the killing of five Palestinian children on the last day of the recent attacks on the Gaza Strip.
According to the website of Haaretz newspaper several army sources confirmed that a military inquiry into the incident which happened on August 7 in the Fallujah Cemetery in east of Jabalia concluded that the children were killed by an Israeli airstrike.
At the time of their death several senior officers claimed the five kids were most likely killed by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket.
Four of the victims were cousins from the family of Nijm. They are Jamil al-Din Nijm 3 Jamil Ihab Nijm 13 Mohamed Salah Nijm 16 Hamed Haidar Nijm 16. They were killed as they were sitting next to their grandfather’s grave in the cemetery in northern Gaza.
The boys’ friend Nazmi Fayez Abu-Karsh 16 also died with them.
An eyewitness called Mohamed Sami told Middle East Eye news website at the time that the boys used to frequent the cemetery. “They came to sit here every day.”
“I was watching the boys after they bought something from a grocery store and then went to sit by the grave” Sami said.
On August 5 the Israeli occupation army launched wanton military aggression against Gaza killing 49 people including 17 children and wounding at least 360 others during three days.
