08:37 12/06/2015
Jerusalem - Israel's killing of four Palestinian boys in an air
strike on a Gaza beach during the 2014 war was a case of mistaken
identity that does not warrant criminal charges, the military says.
Witnessed
by several foreign reporters, the July 16 attack fuelled censure abroad
of Israel's assault on the Hamas-run enclave. The Israelis have been
conducting internal investigations of possible military misconduct while
trying to fend off war-crimes allegations by various U.N. bodies.
Lieutenant-Colonel
Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said the air force fired
on the four boys after failing to identify them as children and
believing they were gunmen running in an area "utilized exclusively by
militants".
Witnesses said the boys were playing soccer at the time.
"After
reviewing the investigation's findings, the Military Advocate General
found that the attack process in question accorded with Israeli domestic
law and international law requirements," Lerner said on Facebook. He
called the deaths "tragic".
Launched after a surge of cross-border
rocket fire by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, Israel's
two-month offensive killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly
civilians. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel also
died.
Israel says it tried to prevent civilian casualties and
accuses Hamas of inviting these by operating inside urban areas.
Israel's critics accuse it of wanton tactics and impunity.
In a
separate statement, the military said it was also closing the cases on
July 21 and July 29 attacks on residential buildings that killed 22
Palestinians. A July 9 attack on a Gaza cafe that killed 9 people was
under criminal investigation, it said, as well allegations that troops
abused a Palestinian detainee and illegally fired on a Gaza medical
clinic.
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