Officers inform Haaretz newspaper that Israel was behind August 7 assault close to Jabalia refugee camp, contradicting earlier claims.

Israeli defence officers have confirmed that an Israeli raid on a Gaza cemetery killed 5 Palestinian youngsters throughout its assault in early August, in response to a brand new report, contradicting earlier statements senior navy officers made to native media.

A number of defence sources advised the Haaretz newspaper that a military inquiry into the August 7 assault concluded the 5 youngsters – Jamil Najm al-Deen Naijm, aged 4; Jamil Ihab Najim, 13; Mohammad Nijm, 17; Hamed Nijm, 17; and Nazmi Abu Karsh, 15, have been killed by an Israeli air assault on the Al-Faluja Cemetery subsequent to the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Within the aftermath of that assault, which got here throughout a three-day Israeli assault on the besieged enclave from August 6 to August 8, a number of senior Israeli officers advised Haaretz the deaths have been seemingly attributable to an off-course Islamic Jihad rocket.

The navy didn’t publicly assign blame for the deaths and didn’t reply to an Al Jazeera request for touch upon the newest report.

The silence was conspicuous after the Israeli navy had individually rapidly forged blame on Islamic Jihad after eight folks, together with youngsters, have been killed within the Jabalia refugee camp a day earlier.

The Israeli navy mentioned it had not carried out any hits on the time of that assault, and later launched video footage showing to point out a number of rockets fired from Gaza, with one showing to fall quick in mid-flight.

Seventeen youngsters have been among the many 49 Palestinians killed within the three-day assault, which Israel described as a “preemptive operation” following its arrest of an Islamic Jihad chief within the occupied West Financial institution a day earlier.

Talking to Al Jazeera after the August 7 killings, Hamed Najim’s mom famous the assault got here simply hours earlier than a ceasefire, which has since held, went into impact.

“Simply two hours earlier than the truce was introduced, he advised me he would exit for 5 minutes together with his cousins,” she mentioned. “Moments glided by after which we heard a bombing. We ran out to seek out my son and his three cousins. They have been all minimize up into items.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council mentioned that three of the boys killed within the assault had been present process trauma remedy earlier than their deaths.

In keeping with information compiled by Protection for Kids Worldwide, at the very least 2,200 youngsters have been killed by the Israeli navy and Israeli settlers throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 2000 – the start of the second Intifada.