An Israeli booby-trap bomb was responsible for the deaths of five Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, the daily Maariv reported Friday, quoted by AFP.
Quoting military sources, the Israeli paper said the bomb was placed a week ago by special forces aiming to kill Palestinian militants who were firing mortar bombs from the area at Israeli targets.
According to the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz, "a landmine or another explosive device" planted by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip likely caused the death of the Palestinian boys early Thursday morning
The army spokesman refused to respond to the matter Thursday night when contacted by the paper.
Unofficially, officers told Haaretz on Thursday that the occupation army had been operating recently in the area where the explosion took place, to stop snipers using Khan Younis buildings to fire on troops. That raised the possibility that a land mine left behind by the army could have killed the children.
Israeli public radio meanwhile said an unidentified senior military official had called for an inquiry into the blast.
Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh, who was deputy defense minister in the previous government, also called for an investigation.
"The deaths of five children are not to be taken lightly," he told the radio. "An inquiry must be held and the army must give explanations."
Left-wing opposition leader Yossi Sarid of the Meretz party accused Israel's military spokesman of concealing the facts, by saying only that the army had fired no shells on Thursday.
The device, said at the time to have been an unexploded tank shell, exploded Thursday when one of a group of five children kicked it on the way to school in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The children, three of whom were said to have been blown to pieces, were to be buried later Friday, said AFP.
Palestinian hospital officials at first said four boys had been killed but later reported finding a fifth body among the charred and mangled remains. They named the five as: Mohammad Naim al Astal, 14, Amr Al Astal, 13, Anis Idris Al Astal, 12, Muhamed Sultan Al Astal 12, Al Akram al Astal, 6.
Announcing a day of mourning, a PA statement said schools would open Friday morning with a minute's silence and the day would be spent "studying the effects of the occupation on Palestinian society and especially on education."
Ahmed Al Astal, a 22-year-old farmer, who witnessed the blast and was wounded, told Palestinian journalists that he saw the children leaving a field and then he heard the blast. He thought that the explosion was caused by a tank, because at the beginning of the week tanks had fired in the same place, injuring a Palestinian woman and her two children.
A top aid of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Nabil Abu Rudeina, was quoted by the official news agency (WAFA) as saying that "the crime is part of Israeli escalation policy, and the plan announced to be implemented by the Israeli army in the Palestinian lands." - Albawaba.com
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