By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) probe concluded Friday that the deaths of a Palestinian mother and her four children resulted not from Israeli fire, but rather from explosions of ammunition carried by Palestinian militants.
Israeli aircraft targeted four armed gunmen carrying ammunition in their backpacks and hit two of them, causing secondary explosions of the militants’ weaponry, which destroyed the family’s home and killed the five civilians, said the IDF in a statement.
The IDF also released a video clip caught by an unmanned aerial vehicle, which proves its claims, accompanying the conclusion of the probe which was launched after a preliminary investigation had found similar results.
Meanwhile, the IDF repeated its accusation that the Hamas movement operates from populated centers and uses civilians as human shields, while Hamas has blamed the IDF for this incident.
A total of seven Palestinians were killed and some 20 others injured in the shelling the IDF carried out Monday morning in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, while three IDF soldiers were lightly wounded.