Close to one-third of the Palestinians who died in the latest outbreak of violence between Israel and Gaza militants may have been killed by errant rockets fired by the Palestinian side, according to an Israeli military assessment that appears consistent with independent reporting by The Associated Press.
No one in Gaza with direct knowledge of the explosions in question was willing to speak about them publicly. But live TV footage showed militant rockets falling short in densely packed residential neighborhoods. And AP visits to the sites of two explosions that killed a total of 12 people lent support to suspicions they were caused by rockets that went off course.
Islamic Jihad said 12 of its fighters were killed, a smaller armed group said it lost a fighter, and Hamas said two Hamas-affiliated policemen who did not take part in the fighting were killed. Israel said it killed at least 20 militants and seven civilians.
On Saturday night, seven Palestinians were killed in a blast in the crowded Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Israeli military said it carried out no operations in the area at the time. It released video footage purportedly showing a barrage of militant rockets, with one falling short.
Islamic Jihad had announced a rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, just north of Jebaliya, at around the same time as the explosion.
Video footage of the aftermath circulated online, showing what appeared to be a rocket casing sticking out of the ground on a narrow, busy street. When the AP visited the site on Monday, the casing was gone and the hole had been filled in with dirt. Palestinians are usually keen to display evidence of Israeli airstrikes to international media.
Al-Mezan attributed the blast to a “projectile,” and the PCHR said it was still investigating.
On Sunday night, an explosion killed five Palestinians ages 4 to 17 at a cemetery in Jebaliya, also around the same time Islamic Jihad announced a barrage of rockets. The Israeli military said it was investigating.
Visiting both sites in Jebaliya, the AP saw none of the telltale signs of an Israeli strike — the wide craters left by F-16s or the narrow holes caused by drone strikes.
In a third suspicious explosion, one of the Hamas-affiliated policemen, who was off-duty, was killed Sunday along with three of his young children in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Hamas, a far more powerful militant group that has fought four wars with Israel, stayed out of the latest fighting, and Israel appears to have been careful not to target it.
I haven't yet identified the "smaller armed group" terrorist AP references. (UPDATE: Adin Haykin mentions that Hassan Mansour was also claimed by the DFLP as well as Islamic Jihad.)
It hadn't occurred to me that the Hamas policeman who was killed with his children was killed by rocket fire. This means that, based on my research, 14 children were killed - and 11 of them by rocket fire! (Two were human shields, one was killed near a wedding that is still unclear.)
It is clear from this article that not only does the Hamas-based health ministry lie about people killed by terror rockets - so do the "human rights" NGOs. If they don't claim someone was killed by Israel, then certainly that person was killed by a rocket, but they won't report it.
The human rights of those Gazans don't matter.
Here is my updated list of people killed in Gaza and whether they were killed by Israel or Islamic Jihad rockets:
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1- Imad Abd al-Rahim Shallah, 50 Gaza. |
With PIJ |
| 2- Youssef Salman Qaddoum 24 Gaza. | PIJ |
| 3- Tayseer Mahmoud Al-Jabari, 50 Gaza City. | PIJ |
| 4- Salama Muharib Abed 41 Gaza. | PIJ |
| 5- Alaa Abdullah Qaddoum, 5 Gaza City. | With PIJ |
| 6- Donyana Adnan Attia Al-Amour 22 Gaza. | Likely rocket ("artillery shell") |
| 7- Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Fattah Al-Madhoun, 26 Al-Nada Towers. | PIJ |
| 8- Fadl Mustafa Zorob 30 Khan Younis. | PIJ |
| 9- Muhammad Hassan Al-Bayouk, 35, Khan Younis. | PIJ |
| 10- Ahmed Mazen Azzam, 25 Gaza Strip. | PIJ |
| 11- Tamim Ghassan Abdullah Hijazi, 23 Al-Zana. | PIJ |
| 12- Osama Abdul Rahman Al-Suri, 27, Bani Suhaila. | PIJ |
| 13- Hassan Mohamed Mansour, 26, Jabalia. | PIJ/DFLP |
| 14- Naama Muhammad Abu Qaida 62 Jabalia. | Apparent rocket(wedding) |
| 15- Nour El-Din Ali Al-Zubaidi 19 Jabalia | Likely IDF (Qassam Brigades) |
| 16- Hazem Muhammad Salem 12 Jabalia. | Jabalia rocket |
| 17- Ahmad Muhammad Al-Nayrab 13 Jabalia. | Jabalia rocket |
| 18- Moamen Muhammad Al-Nairab 4 Jabalia. | Jabalia rocket |
| 19 - Khalil Iyad Abu Hamadeh, 19, Jabalia. | Jabalia rocket |
| 20- Ahmed Walid Al-Fram, 18 Jabalia. | Jabalia rocket |
| 21- Misbah al-Khatib 50 Jabalia agreed. | Jabalia rocket |
| 22- Muhammad Muhammad Ibrahim Zaqout 19 Jabalia. | Jabalia rocket |
| 23- Ziad Ahmed Al Mudallal, 36 Rafah. | PIJ |
| 24- Muhammad Iyad Hassouna, 14 Rafah. | With PIJ in Rafah |
| 25- Ismail Abdel Hamid Mohamed Salameh, 30 Rafah. | With PIJ in Rafah |
| 26- Hana Ismail Ali Salameh, 51, Rafah. | With PIJ in Rafah |
| 27- Rafat Saleh Ibrahim Al-Zamili, 45, Rafah. | PIJ |
| 28- Khaled Saeed Mansour 47 Rafah. | With PIJ in Rafah |
| 29- Alaa Saleh Al-Tahrawi, 30, Rafah. | With PIJ in Rafah |
| 30- Ahmad Muhammad Afana, 31, Jabalia. | Hamas (but not target) |
| 31- Dia Zuhair Al-Borai, 30 Jabalia. | Rocket (House in Jabalia) |
| 32- Jamil Ehab Najm 15 Jabalia. | Rocket (Fallujah cemetery) |
| 33- Jamil Najm Najm 6 Jabalia. | Rocket (Fallujah cemetery) |
| 34- Nazmi Fayez Abu Karsh 16 Jabalia. | Rocket (Fallujah cemetery) |
| 35- Hamed Haider Najm 17 Jabalia. | Rocket (Fallujah cemetery) |
| 36-Mohamed Salah Najm 17 Jabalia. | Rocket (Fallujah cemetery) |
| 37- Muhammad Yasser Nimr Al-Nabahin 13 | Rocket (Al Bureij) |
| 38- Ahmed Yasser Nimr Al Nabahin 9 Al-Bureij. | Rocket (Al Bureij) |
| 39- Dalia Yasser Nimr Al Nabaheen 13 Al Bureij. | Rocket (Al Bureij) |
| 40 - Yasser Nimr Mahmoud Al Nabahin 45 Al-Bureij. | Rocket (Al Bureij), Hamas police |
| 41 - Khaled Ayman Yassin, 27 Zaytoun | Apparent IDF attack |
| 42- Shady Emad Nimr Kahil, 27 Zaytoun | Apparent IDF attack on municipal worker |
| 43- Abd al-Rahman Jum’ah al-Silk 19 al-Shuja’iyya. | Apparent IDF attack |
| 44- Mahmoud Daoud in Gaza | Apparent IDF attack, Hamas policeman |
| 45- Haneen Walid Abu Qaida, 10 | Apparent rocket (wedding) |
| 46- Fatima Obaid, 15 | Rocket (Beit Hanoun) |
| 47- Ibrahim Shehda Abu Salah, Beit Hanoun | Apparently killed with #15 |
I made a mock-up of the New York Times lampooning their front page last year where they published photos of dozens of children supposedly killed in Gaza, blaming Israel. They had never done anything like that before and they are never going to do that for these children killed by Islamic Jihad. (I've updated the data since I made this poster.)
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