Friday, 7 (or 8, depending on the source) Palestinian civilians were killed in an explosion on a Gaza beach. Hamas claims that Israeli artillery shells killed them and used the deaths as an excuse to end the fragile ceasefire with Israel.

Israel is now telling its side of the story:

An Israel Defense Forces intelligence officer has confirmed that the explosion that killed eight Palestinians on Friday, was caused by a stockpile of Hamas explosives.

"Shortly after we stopped defensive firing at Hamas rocket launch pads which were deployed behind Palestinian human shields, members of Hamas scrambled to fire more rockets at our positions," said Col. M. "We have eyes on every meter of Gaza, from the sky, from the ground and from the sea. One of their rocket tripods collapsed inadvertently setting off an explosion of a stockpile of Qassam rockets. The Palestinians killed their own children. And this was not the first time."

Hamas terrorists fired rockets and mortar bombs from a crowded Gaza beach at southern Israel. Some of the rockets fell near the Israel city of Ashkelon. Some 17 rockets were fired between Saturday and Sunday morning. A man at a school in the Israel town of Sderot was wounded, Israel officials said.

Israel Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant said today that the Israel Defense Forces has additional evidence that it wasn't Israel artillery that hit the beach in Gaza. Galant, who commands Israel's southern command, said Israel stopped firing 15 minutes before the explosion. It's all on secure videotape from both sides of the conflict. Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was sorry about the deaths, which included three children.

Hamas knows what happened, they know their own incompetent terrorists killed their own people. And they still use the incident as an excuse to end the ceasefire. Why? Hamas is in a nasty fight with Fatah over control of the PA government, and the best way to maintain support is to find an external enemy to bring the faithful back into the fold. Wag the dog, if you will.

Roll the video, Galant.

Posted by: cbjohnson at 01:06 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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