2014 Gaza war beach bombing incidents

The IDF said it was investigating this incident and another bombing with substantial civilian casualties on the same night roughly three hours later in Khan Younis Refugee Camp which killed 8 members of the Al Haj family.[12][13][14][15] Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor stated that Hamas was exposing Palestinians to Israeli attacks by operating "within houses and streets and neighborhoods which are populated with civilians,... exposing these civilians to retaliation and to backfire."[16]

Israel said the incident was designed as a precision strike with the missile aimed at a single terrorist, and Peter Lerner, the IDF spokesman, said that in such operations, no warning is given. No information was forthcoming as to the identity of the putative terrorist in their midst.[6]

Human Rights Watch, after an investigation, cited the case as an apparent example of Israel targeting civilian structures and people in violation of the laws of war. No evidence had been provided that civilians watching a soccer match had been engaged in terrorist activities.[11]

The Israeli internal investigation into the incident was concluded 11 months later in June 2015. After a thorough review, involving extensive interviews with IDF soldiers and officers who planned and executed the operation, analysis of many documents, video footage, and attempts to interview Gazans allegedly witnesses to the incident (who refused to be interviewed but three supplied affidavits)[25] the official IDF result cleared itself of culpability. According to Peter Lerner, the firing targeted a Hamas Naval Police and Naval Force "compound", used exclusively by militants, and closed off from the rest of the area by a fence. It added that it had attacked a weapon-storage 'container' inside the compound a day earlier. From aerial observation operational staff had concluded Hamas figures were entering the area to conduct a military action, and authorization was given to fire a missile after one of the identified figures entered the container and after 'a civilian presence in the area' had been ruled out. The missile struck the target, and a second was fired at the fleeing figures. It concluded that, 'It should be stressed that the figures were not identified at any point during the incident, as children'[26] The credibility of its own internal investigations, Israel maintains, renders any International Criminal Court review, as the Palestinian Authority is seeking, unnecessary.[17] The reason why children were there was, it stated, 'unclear'.[25]

The United Nations Commission into the 2014 conflict examined the evidence, from the IDF's own documents and independent analysis of field reports, and concluded that the IDF had failed to take the appropriate precautions stipulated by the rules of protecting civilians in a conflict. The stature of the boys was small compared to adults; no IDF soldiers, potentially exposed to danger, were in the area as the ground invasion had not yet got underway; no other persons were in imminent danger, and therefore there was no urgency in launching a strike. The IDF, it concluded, could therefore have taken more exhaustive measures to verify whether or not the targeted people were militants. Lastly, the compound was located in the centre of a city with a half a million residents, between a public beach and a fisherman's area, close to international hotels lodging journalists, facts that would not rule out the possibility civilians might in the area. The assumption was made that the targets were militants based on their presence in a particular area, a premise that 'reversed the presumption of civilian status'. The internal IDF investigation did not appear to have questioned many people who were direct witnesses to the incident.[2]

Journalists said what had been struck by the shelling was a small dilapidated fisherman's hut. Peter Beaumont, who was present, said the investigators made no attempt to take a statement from him personally, that no one had observed militants in the area at the time. Further, the breakwater was readily accessible through a side lane, is located on one of the busiest sectors of a public beach, and used regularly by both fishermen and sunbathers. The container did not appear to have military supplies. What is not clear, Beaumont said, is why the IDF failed to identify the figures as children playing on a beach.[26] Writing for The Globe and Mail, Patrick Martin who was also present that day, said the report's description did not tally with the fact that the "compound" described as spanning "the length of the breakwater of the Gaza City seashore" was mainly used by fishermen: fishing boats, not Hamas naval vessels, are tethered all along it, as satellite images reveal. People in the area would have most likely been fishermen, or children, not militants, he concluded.[17] Paul Mason, who was present in the area some days later, asked why with overhead drone footage and high-resolution optical devices from ships off-shore, the IDF was unable to distinguish 10-year-olds from physically fit scuba-diving commandos preparing an attack. Why should such an attack take place in broad daylight?[27]

Photojournalist Dan Cohen paid a follow-up visit in June 2015 to the Bakr clan, descendants from Gazans who are not refugees, but trace their descent to Arabian fisherman immigrants who settled in the area centuries ago.[18]

They now live on the edges of the Shati Refugee Camp, The surviving son, Muntasir, regarded by his family as a "living martyr", bears shrapnel in his head, suffers severe trauma, as yet untreated, requiring treatment not available in Gaza, and is prone to violence, having attempted suicide and attacked his siblings. The family cannot afford the medicines Muntasir's disturbed mental conditions require. The clan is affiliated politically with Fatah, and the family says Hamas has done nothing to help them out since the incident.[18] According to the boy's account:

"We barely started playing when the first missile exploded right next to my cousin Ismael," he said. "We started running away and then I told them 'lets go back and get Ismael then we'll run away again.' When we did that another missile exploded right next to us. My brother and my nephew died because they let go of my hand. Two missiles exploded around me. It was foggy when we were running, I turned around and saw my nephew and brother lying on the ground."[24]

Before the war, he intended following his father's footsteps, to become a fisherman, but now wishes to become a fighter.[24] Eight other members of the family died six months later, in an attempt to escape from the Gaza Strip and reach Europe. A cousin, Mowfaq, decided after the boys' funeral to lead his family out, since though unscathed by the conflict so far, he considered that the future held no guarantees for their safety. He and 8 of his family, mostly children, escaped via Egypt, took a boat from Dalmietta and, close to Malta, drowned along with 500 others, when the vessel was rammed by another smuggler's launch.[28]