If anything explodes in Palestinian Arab territory, you must blame Israel

A couple of weeks ago Ma'an "reported:"

Three Palestinians were killed and two were injured on Friday when an unexploded Israeli bomb blew up in the Shujaiyya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City.

A Ma'an reporter in Gaza said that a huge explosion was heard in the Shujaiyya area and ambulances rushed to the area immediately.

Spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza Ashraf al-Qidra said that two Palestinians were killed in the explosion.

Interestingly, the Gaza Ministry of Health didn't blame any Israeli ordnance for the deaths; they referred to it as a "mysterious explosion" which is what they call "work accidents."

All three killed were men in their 20s.

This isn't proof that it wasn't really from an unexploded Israeli bomb, but the news articles all assumed it was without any factual basis. (At the time I commented on Ma'an about this, and they didn't publish it.)

Now there is a similar report, from near Bethlehem:

Two Palestinian boys were injured on Tuesday when an unexploded Israeli ordnance blew up as they were pasturing sheep in the Bethlehem district, relatives told Ma'an.

Malik Muhammad Abu Dayyah, 12, and his 11-year-old brother Ali were tending to their father's sheep in the village of al-Manshiya when the ordnance exploded, family members said.

Malik sustained serious wounds to the thigh and Ali sustained minor burns. They were taken to an infirmary in the nearby village of Tuqu and Malik was later transferred to al-Ahli hospital in Hebron.

Israeli forces often enter al-Manshiya overnight, sometimes firing tear gas and stun grenades during clashes with locals. The Abu Dayyah family believes the ordnance that injured their sons was a grenade.

If the IDF routinely enters al-Manshiya for no apparent reason, Ma'an sure doesn't report it. A search for that village name over the past 8 years finds only a handful of mentions, none of them about Israeli forces.

However, there is some unexploded ordnance in the Bethlehem area reported once by Ma'an - old Jordanian minefields:

A US-based organization Roots of Peace on Friday launched a campaign to clear mines from fields near Bethlehem.

The initiative was announced at a press conference in Husan village, west of Bethlehem, where a 1.5-acre minefield has claimed four lives and injured 10 people since 1967.

The organization plans a large-scale campaign to remove 1.5 million landmines and unexploded ordnance from the West Bank, a statement said.

1.5 million!

Lots of opportunities to blame Israel for kids that get blown up!