As suspected, the IDF has concluded that the deaths of the seven palestinians at a Gaza beach last Friday were not caused by an errant IDF artillery shell, but probably caused by an explosive device buried in the sand. As Defense Minister Amir Peretz said this evening:
“We have enough findings to back up the suspicion that the intention to describe this as an Israeli event is simply not correct…The accumulating evidence proves that this incident was not due to Israeli forces.”
The IDF Committee who conducted the investigation made the following findings to support their conclusion:
1. Five of the IDF shells landed approximately 250 meters from the beach, and the explosion occurred at least eight minutes after the missing sixth shell was fired.
2. Shrapnel was removed from some of the wounded people (in Israeli hospitals, thank you very much). The existence of shrapnel points to a bomb explosion, not that of a shell.
3. Photographs indicate that the crater left on the beach by the blast seems to have been made by an explosion from below (a mine), not a hit from above (a shell).
4. Israeli intelligence indicates that over the past few weeks, Hamas has been placing mines on the northern Gaza beach to keep Israeli commandos from landing there.
While there is a chance the explosion could have been caused by an Israeli dud explosive device, it is more likely that it was a palestinian one, especially considering reported Hamas attempts to impede the investigation.
