The Israeli military cleared itself of responsibility for a missile attack that killed four children on Gaza beach last summer, reports the Guardian.
The Israeli advocate general’s office concluded that the deaths were a “tragic accident.” Israel’s military spokesperson Peter Lerner, said that the strike had targeted a Hamas compound belonging to Hamas naval forces.
The Israeli Defence Force statement, said,
“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 (including naval commandos), and which was utilized exclusively by militants.”
Journalists who were at the scene immediately after the attack, including one from the Guardian, said that only a small dilapidated fisherman’s hut was the only structure in the immediate vicinity.
UN figures estimate that 2,200 Palestinians were killed in the 50 day conflict last summer.