During a day-long barrage of over 450 rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad at southern Israel, a rocket blast inside Gaza on Saturday killed at least six people, including four children. 350 of the PIJ rockets made it into Israel but 100 fell inside Gaza. The IDF announced on Saturday night that an investigation concluded “without a doubt” that it was caused by a misfire on the part of the Islamic Jihad militant group.
“Contrary to the Palestinian publications regarding the incident in Jabaliya, it should be clarified: We have videos that prove beyond any doubt that this is not an Israeli attack. The Israeli security forces have not attacked in Jabaliya in recent hours,” a statement read. “It has been unequivocally proven that it was a failed launch of a rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad. With the publication of the news in the Palestinian and international media, a comprehensive investigation was held which unequivocally revealed that it was not an Israeli attack but a rocket launch from the Gaza Strip, which fell in the heart of Jabaliya.”
Infographic from the IDF of the path of the failed rocket launch pic.twitter.com/f0WarfFVku
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 7, 2022
The IDF published a video it claims shows the rocket that misfired and killed the children in Jabaliya.
IDF publishes a video showing the failed rocket launch that struck Jabaliya in northern Gaza, killing several Palestinian children. pic.twitter.com/coPa2zTV4u
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 7, 2022
The video below shows another PIJ rocket launched from Gaza misfiring and exploding inside Gaza.
“Every shooting by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is a double war crime. It shoots at civilians and uses the residents of Gaza as human shields. This incident is an example of the Islamic Jihad’s harm to the residents of the Gaza Strip. Israel is sorry for any harm to the innocent.”
Studies of last year’s conflict revealed that rocket fire from Gaza killed more Gazans than Israelis. One of the most distressing aspects of media coverage of the 2021 fighting was the deaths of children. The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in Israel found that 62 children in Gaza under 16 were killed. However, at least nine of these youths were killed by errant Hamas rockets. According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in Israel, nine children and 10 adults were killed by Palestinian rocket fire. OCHA concluded, “The result was Hamas killing its own civilians and destroying infrastructure.” In 2015, a Hamas rocket fell short and killed 11 children.
While the IDF makes every effort to protect the innocent, Hamas makes every effort to put them in harm’s way. Hamas intentionally places its missile launchers, mortars, armories, tunnel systems and other weaponry in civilian areas. Hamas terror tunnels have been found underneath schools and apartment buildings and adjacent to hospitals.
Missile launchers are concealed in densely populated residential neighborhoods with no regard to the lives of those who must live alongside them. Even the press has been threatened to accept Hamas weapons in and around their offices, according to a former journalist who worked for the Associated Press.
