JERUSALEM: Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday rejected a request to reopen an investigation into the deaths of four Palestinian children who were killed by an Israeli airstrike while playing on the beach in the Gaza Strip during a 2014 war.
In its ruling, the court upheld earlier decisions by Israeli military investigators and legal authorities determining the incident was a tragic mistake.
“With all of the sorrow and heartache over the tragic and difficult outcome of the event in this petition, I did not find that the petitioners pointed to a flaw in the decision of the attorney general,” said Sunday’s ruling, signed by the court’s president, Esther Hayut, and approved unanimously with two other justices.
The cousins from the Bakr family, all between 10 and 11 years old, were playing soccer on the beach when they were killed during the 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
The incident drew widespread international attention, in part because many foreign journalists staying in nearby hotels witnessed the incident. Images showed the children desperately running away from a jetty as a missile falls, and then the boys falling to the ground one after another.
The appeal to the Supreme Court was filed by three human rights organizations — the Israeli group Adalah and the Gaza-based Al-Mezan and Palestinian Center for Human Rights — who were seeking a criminal investigation into the incident.
In a joint statement, the groups said Sunday’s decision “is further evidence that Israel is unable and unwilling to investigate and prosecute soldiers and commanders for war crimes against Palestinian civilians.”
Critics have long accused Israel and its military of whitewashing wrongdoing by its troops. Last year, the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into alleged Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories, including actions during the 2014 war. Bakr family members delivered testimony to the court during a preliminary inquiry.
Israel has rejected the ICC case, saying its legal system is capable of investigating the military and accusing the court of antisemitism.
Israeli court rejects appeal in deadly Gaza beach airstrike
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Israeli court rejects appeal in deadly Gaza beach airstrike
- Israel has rejected the ICC case, saying its legal system is capable of investigating the military and accusing the court of antisemitism
Senior Hamas figure reported killed in air strike in Gaza
- Israel has razed buildings and ordered residents out of more than half of Gaza where its troops remain
- Israel and Hamas have traded blame for violations of the ceasefire
CAIRO: Two Israeli airstrikes killed five people in Deir Al-Balah in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said, and Palestinian media reported that one of those killed was a senior figure in the armed wing of Hamas.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the incident. Palestinian media identified him as Mohammed Al-Holy, describing him as a local Hamas commander in Deir Al-Balah. The militant group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
More than 400 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been reported killed since a fragile ceasefire took effect in October.
Israel has razed buildings and ordered residents out of more than half of Gaza where its troops remain. Nearly all of the territory’s more than 2 million people now live in makeshift homes or damaged buildings in a sliver of territory where Israeli troops have withdrawn and Hamas has reasserted control.
The United Nations children agency said on Tuesday that over 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire, including victims of drone and quadcopter attacks.
Israel and Hamas have traded blame for violations of the ceasefire and remain far apart from each other on key issues, despite the United States announcing the second phase of the ceasefire on Wednesday.
Israel launched its operations in Gaza in the wake of an attack by Hamas-led fighters on October, 2023 which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s assault has killed 71,000 people, according to health authorities in the strip, and left much of Gaza in ruins.
