IDF officials said Sunday that the IAF mistakenly bombed the home of a Palestinian family, apparently due to a technical error while targeting a senior Hamas militant in charge of the group's rocket firing teams.
The IDF announced that nine Palestinians have been killed and 20 wounded in the attack on a house in the Nasser neighborhood of Gaza City. Most of the casualties were unarmed civilians, including children and infants, the IDF stated. According to the IDF report, the source of the error was either the failure to paint the target of the attack on the correct site or that one of the munitions in the strike misfired. The army is still investigating the causes behind the incident.
The announcement came as a response to earlier Palestinian reports that approximately 12 Gazan family members had been killed in an IDF air strike.
The army stated that it was working to reduce as much as possible any harm to Palestinian civilians as part of its operations in Gaza. The IDF emphasized that people in areas that the army attacks are sent warnings via text message, phone calls and leaflets telling them to stay away from Hamas militants.