14-Jun-06: What happened on the beach?

The notion that Israeli aggression caused the deaths of a Gazan family recreating on the beach this past Friday is so powerful, so compelling, so iconic, so irresistible to people who hate Israel and all it stands for, that evidence refuting the blame-Israel-always-at-all-costs version must be hard to take. 

How else to explain the strikingly skimpy coverage in the media of Israel's own enquiry into the deaths? 

In the interests of allowing the sober voices of Israel's self-examination to be heard, here is the English translation of yesterday's statement to the media.

Maj Gen. Meir Kalifi: In order to determine whether the claim that the IDF was responsible for the incident in the Gaza Shore on Friday was true or false we needed to determine the exact time and place of the incident.

The investigation was based on intelligence analysis, Palestinian claims, media coverage of the incident and IDF filmed footage that documented all IDF activity during that day. We can say that the incident took place 150 meters from a place we call the "Casino". The time of the incident was between 16:57-17:10. We came to this conclusion by analyzing three films. The first shows nothing irregular or unusual that might indicate that a large explosion took place in a range of 50 meters from the place of the incident on the beach between 16:54-16:57. A second film, from around 18:30, depicts people's behavior after the explosion, proving that the incident must have occurred before then. The third film shows the arrival of the ambulances at 17:15 which brings us to the conclusion that the incident occurred not before 16:57 and not after 17:10. 

Taking this timeline in account we have checked all reports of IDF fire on that day. I can without doubt say that no means used by the IDF during this time period caused the incident. The closest IAF attack took place 2.5 kilometers north of the site and occurred after 17:15. Concerning naval fire, 17 shells were fired at areas 700 meters from the site of the incident. The naval shells fired in proximity to the location of the explosion landed between 11:00 AM and 12:00 noon. We have documentation of where all the shells landed. It proves that all shells were launched approximately four hours before the incident.

We can also dismiss the cause being an IDF artillery shell, launched from the land. During those hours we fired six shells at a target called Reshef 31. In order to make sure we do not hit areas with citizens we fired range-adjustment fire approximately 580-600 meters north of the target. Using a special system, we can precisely account for the places where five of the six shells landed. The first shell which was fired was not identified by the system, btt the possibility of the first shell fired from the battery causing the incident is close to zero, as it was launched at around 16:30. In addition a piece of shrapnel was found in the wound of one of the Palestinians who was injured and received medical treatment in Israel. The shrapnel was taken for examination in a laboratory. The examination showed that, without a doubt, the shrapnel was not a part of an IDF artillery shell.

So, all possibilities that the cause of the explosion was an artillery shell fired on that Friday have been disproved. 

Chief of Staff Dan Halutz: We need to remember the context of this incident. In the past few weeks Israeli civilians who live in the western Negev, especially in the city of Sderot, have been under a constant shower of Qassam rockets. We are working to reduce this. Concerning the incident on Gaza beach: on Saturday evening I expressed our regret for the members of the Palestinian family who were killed, and I emphasized that expressing regret does not mean taking responsibility. Today I state clearly we still regret the incident, but we are not responsible for it.

And this from Amir Peretz, Minister of Defence:

"We have enough findings to back up the suspicion that the intention to describe this as an Israeli event is simply not correct. The accumulating evidence proves that this incident was not due to Israeli forces."