2006 Gaza beach explosion

The Gaza beach blast was an event on June 9, 2006 in which eight Palestinians were killed — including the entire family of seven year old Huda Ghaliya — and at least thirty others injured in an explosion at a beach near the municipality of Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army, which frequently targets sites it says are used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets into the Western Negev, was shelling the beach 250 metres away ten minutes prior to the blast, and it was initially reported that the blast was caused by an Israeli artillery shell. An Israeli military investigation has subsequently rejected that claim, and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has brought into question the authenticity of Palestinian video footage broadcast at the time. . Human Rights watch investigator, initialy claimed the IDF investigation of the case is flawed but later admited it can not contradict the IDF finding:"We came to an agreement with General Klifi that the most likely cause [of the blast] was unexploded Israeli ordinance," Garlasco told The Jerusalem Post following the meeting. While Klifi's team did a "competent job" to rule out the possibility that the blast was caused by artillery fire, there were still, Garlasco said, a number of pieces of evidence that the IDF commission did not take into consideration. [2]

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, initially referred to the event as a "bloody massacre" and demanded international intervention. The Defense Minister of Israel Amir Peretz sent the Palestinian leader a letter of condolence, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected any calls for an international investigation into the tragedy, and Ha'aretz have reported current UNSC president Ellen Margrethe Løj refusing to convene the council to discuss the incident unless Palestinian attacks on Israel were also considered: "This (event) did not occur in a void, someone is instigating terror acts and Israel responds to that(terror)" she said. In response to the firing of Kasam rockets against Israel President Abbas declared that: ""President Abbas holds any group and any faction that violates the truce fully responsible for the destruction and demolitions and victims that will result because of any Israeli imminent aggression."[3]

Conflicting investigations

Although early reports from Israeli sources stated that victims who arrived at Israeli hospitals were "cleansed" of any shrapnel prior to their departure from the Gaza Strip, an IDF investigation into the deaths concluded, on 13 June 2006, that one piece of shrapnel removed from a Palestinian victim did not match the metal signature of Israeli munitions, and that IDF shells or missiles would have left larger craters than found on the site of the incident. The report suggested the blast was probably caused by an explosive device buried in the sand, but did not determine whether it was planted by Palestinians (as the IDF committee head speculated but could not confirm) or was an old IDF explosive.

The IDF explained that six shells from a canon were fired in the vicinity. The landing spots of the first five were identified as being 250 meters away from the incident, but that of the sixth was not determined. The army is nevertheless convinced that the sixth shell, which was shot a full eight minutes prior to the fatal blast, could not have fallen on the beach almost half a kilometer away from its intended target.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Interior Ministry described the Israeli report as "a lie and an attempt to escape moral responsibility for the massacre of a completely innocent family."

Colonel Saleh Abu Alozom of the Palestinian bomb squad claims to have recovered from the beach multiple fragments from the copper shell casing of an IDF 155mm artilery shell of the type fired towards the area on the day in question. Mark Garlasco also claims to have Israeli-stamped shrapnel from the scene.

Human Rights Watch

Mark Garlasco, the senior military analyst and battle damage assessment expert at Human Rights Watch, said that the nature of the injuries was "not consistent" with the Israeli explanation of an explosion originating from a buried object. He told the BBC:

It has been suggested by some that the family was killed by a land mine, and this is patently not the case. All of the evidence is pointing to a 155mm shell as having killed and injured the Palestinians here on the beach. My assessment [is] that it's likely that this was incoming artillery fire that landed on the beach and was fired by the Israelis from the north of Gaza.

Following a meeting with the head of the IDF inquiry commission Major General Meir Klifi on 19 June 2006, Garlasco praised the IDF's efforts to avoid civilian casualties and their professional investigation of the blast, which he said was most likely to have been caused by unexploded Israeli ordnance left on the beach. HRW continues to call for an independent investigation however, citing Palestinian hospital documentation indicating that the explosion actually took place at the time of the IDF artillery fire.

Israeli apology withdrawn

Following the conclusion of the Israeli investigation, defense minister Peretz withdrew his previous apology saying, "We showed the necessary restraint in light ... of the international uproar that resulted, but it's over." In addition, the IDF have rescinded their temporary halt of shelling and airstrikes in the Gaza strip. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed condolences for the deaths, but did not accept responsibilty for the casualties. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni agreed and suggested that "There is a situation in which maybe ... this was an explosive that was put on the beach for future attacks on Israel." Major General Dan Halutz, IDF Chief of Staff and former Israeli Air Force Commander was reported as saying "We can say, surely, that the IDF is not responsible for the incident," and that, "We checked each and every shell that was fired from the sea, the air and from the artillery on the land and we found out that we can track each and every one according to a timetable and according to the accuracy of where they hit the ground."