We made a ‘regrettable mistake’, says Israel after killing 86 Palestinians in refugee camp

Israel has characterised the killing of 86 Palestinians in Gaza’s Maghazi Refugee Camp as a “regrettable mistake.” The massacre, which took place on Christmas Eve, was a result of “incorrect munition”, Israeli officials claimed, while acknowledging that it “should not have happened.”

The admission was made in an announcement to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan yesterday. The military official acknowledged that the raid on Maghazi employed munitions unsuitable for a densely populated refugee camp. The official stated: “The type of munition did not match the nature of the attack, causing extensive collateral damage which could have been avoided.”

Israel’s apparent “regret” at killing 86 people in a refugee camp is a stark contrast to the massacre of 21,000 Palestinians in its so-called targeted killing. The death toll in Gaza has made it the one of the worst massacres in living memory. Palestinians are being killed at a higher rate by the Israelis in their so-called targeted bombing campaign than Brits killed by Nazi Germany during eight months of indiscriminate bombing.

READ: Israel kills 6 more Palestinians in occupied West Bank refugee camp

More than 40,000 civilians were killed by the German Luftwaffe bombing during the war, almost half of them in London where more than a million houses were destroyed or damaged. Under the current rate of death, Israel will have killed 80,000 if the military operation were to last eight months.

Israel has routinely utilised powerful bombs in the densely packed Gaza Strip, despite the heightened risk of civilian casualties. According to a recent US intelligence assessment cited by CNN, nearly half of the Israeli munitions used on Gaza were unguided “dumb bombs“, known for their lower accuracy and increased potential for causing civilian harm.

In a recent interview with Sky News, Israeli government spokesperson, London born Eylon Levy rejected repeated requests for an apology for the loss of lives in Maghazi. He confirmed that the Israeli army admitted using the wrong munition but did not specify its type.

Levy defended the killing saying it is an inevitable consequence of war.

The Maghazi camp strike marked one of the deadliest incidents in the ongoing war on Gaza. News footage from the scene depicted extensive destruction, bodies being recovered from rubble and children with shrapnel-scarred faces in hospitals. Among the casualties were numerous women and children.

It is just one instance prompting concerns about the indiscriminate character of Israel’s bombardment, resulting in the conversion of entire Gaza neighbourhoods into heaps of debris. On Thursday, close to 100 civilians lost their lives in assaults on different sites throughout Gaza.

According to Palestinian authorities, a minimum of 90 individuals perished in Israeli attacks on a residential block in the Jabalia refugee camp earlier this month. Moreover, in early December, Israeli attacks claimed the lives of 700 Palestinians in a single day.

READ: Israeli airstrike kills over 70 at refugee camp in Gaza: Health ministry