Israeli drone strike kills two children in Gaza

Khan Yunis: Family members said an Israeli drone strike killed two Palestinian boys in Gaza on Saturday, with Israel’s military saying it had identified two suspects “posing an immediate threat”.

The military said it saw two people who “conducted suspicious activities”.

Uncles of the slain children told AFP the boys were brothers aged 8 and 10, and that they had been out looking for firewood.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, told AFP two brothers were killed in an Israeli drone strike in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, at around 8:30 am (0630 GMT).

Bassal named them as Fadi and Jumaa Tamer Abu Assi.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis confirmed receiving the bodies of the children, adding that their funerals were held in the afternoon.

Mourners grieved over the white body bags, with one man kneeling down and putting his arms around one of them.

Alaa Abu Assi, an uncle of the two boys, said they were “innocent children who have no rockets and no bombs”, adding that they were “aged eight and 10”.

“They were gathering firewood to help their disabled father who has platinum plates in his legs. We went and found them in pieces, and we brought them back,” he told AFP.

Abu Assi said his brother had sent his sons out looking for firewood “because he has absolutely nothing… and if my brother were able, he would have gone himself, but he cannot”.

– Yellow Line –

More than 60 people gathered for the funeral, bowing their heads as prayers were said.

They boys’ father in his wheelchair, crying out, held on to the body bags, one on each side, as they were carried by mourners before burial.

The fatal drone strike happened around the so-called Yellow Line within the Gaza Strip, a boundary marked with yellow concrete blocks.

Under the fragile, US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli army withdrew to positions behind the Yellow Line.

Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, there have been multiple deadly incidents involving Israeli forces firing on people in the area of the Yellow Line.

Baha Abu Assi, another uncle of the dead brothers, said of the Yellow Line: “They targeted the area… we live here and we don’t know of any blocks or signs that prove what they say.

“These kids don’t even know where they’re going,” he told AFP.

“The child was going to pick up a piece of firewood because of the lack of gas and the lack of food. They went to bring their father a piece of firewood.”

In a statement, the Israeli military said soldiers “identified two suspects who crossed the Yellow Line, conducted suspicious activities on the ground, and approached IDF (Israeli army) troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip, posing an immediate threat to them”.

“Following the identification, the IAF (Israeli Air Force) eliminated the suspects in order to remove the threat.”

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says that since the ceasefire began, 354 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.