4 Palestinians killed, 30 injured in explosion in Gaza

Eyewitnesses say that the blast was caused when Palestinians moved the remnant of an IAF bomb left over from last summer's Operation Protective Edge.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA
Updated: AUGUST 6, 2015 13:32
4 Palestinians killed, 30 injured in explosion in Gaza
At least four Palestinians were killed and some 30 more were injured in an explosion at a home in the Shaboura refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Thursday.
Eyewitnesses said that the blast occurred when people removing debris from a home hit by an IAF strike during last summer's Operation Protective Edge moved an unexploded bomb, causing it to blow up.
The family was clearing away the debris in order to begin reconstruction on the house when the blast occurred, according to reports.
A Palestinian medical source said that the four dead and dozens of wounded were transported by ambulance to Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah. All four of those killed in the explosion were members of the Abu Nakira family, who owned the house.
In a video posted on Facebook a large cloud of smoke could be seen emanating from within Rafah.
During last year's Operation Protective Edge, Israeli forces heavily bombarded Rafah after IDF officer Hadar Goldin was kidnapped in Gaza.
An Amnesty International report released last month accused Israel of “disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks” in the hours and days following the killing and kidnapping of Goldin in Rafah.
“There is strong evidence that Israeli forces committed war crimes in their relentless and massive bombardment of residential areas of Rafah in order to foil the capture of Lt. Hadar Goldin, displaying a shocking disregard for civilian lives,” said Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International, upon release of the report. “They carried out a series of disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks, which they have completely failed to investigate independently.”
But the Foreign Ministry dismissed the report from the human rights organization, which it said has an obsession and bias regarding Israel, saying there were problems with the report’s methodologies, facts, legal analysis and conclusions, and adding that it created the impression that “the IDF was fighting against itself.”


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