Israel Closes Probe on Killing 4 Gaza Children
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Israel says it has dropped a judicial investigation into one of the regime’s deadly airstrikes on the Gaza Strip which claimed the lives of four children.
"The ... case has been closed following the completion of a criminal investigation," read the statement issued by the Israeli military on Thursday, claiming that the decision was made after “an extensive number of documents relating to the attack were reviewed,” including “video footage documenting the attack in real time, as well as media images.”
The military also alleged to have collected testimonies from the Israeli soldiers and officers “who were involved in the planning and execution of the attack” and also from Gaza residents, ruling that the Israeli troops cannot be held accountable for the cold-blooded murder.
“From the factual findings collected by the investigators, it revealed that the incident took place in an area that had long been known as a compound belonging to Hamas’s Naval Police and Naval Force,” the statement went on to say.
This is while a reporter for the British daily The Guardian, who witnessed the killing, said that no effort had been made on the part of the Israeli officials to take his testimony.
On July 16, 2014, the Israeli army carried out airstrikes on Gaza beach where Palestinian children were playing, killing four of them aged between 9 and 11.
Reports also said that the Palestinian authorities aim to present the incident to the International Criminal Court as an evidence of the war crimes committed by the Tel Aviv regime, Press TV reported.
The Israeli military also dropped legal proceedings over two other deadly attacks on a residential compound in central Gaza City and also on the southern town of Khan Yunis, which claimed the lives of over 20 Palestinian civilians. Both raids were carried out in July last year.
Last summer, the Tel Aviv regime launched a brutal attack against the besieged coastal sliver, killing 2,140 Palestinians, including 557 children.
The aggression also left 11,100 Palestinians wounded, including 3,374 children and 2,088 women, and displaced over 170,000 others.
Gazans grapple with unemployment, poverty and a declining standard of living on a daily basis as the region has been blockaded since 2007.