The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday night released footage it claims shows a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket misfiring and causing an explosion in a residential area of Jabalya that reportedly killed numerous people, including four children.
The rocket was launched at 6:51 p.m. local time, according to the IDF, and was detected by the military’s ballistic missile defense center. PIJ is experiencing an average of 20% misfired rockets, according to the military.
As of Sunday evening, terrorists from Gaza had fired some 1,000 projectiles towards the Jewish state since the IDF launched “Operation Breaking Dawn” on Friday afternoon.
About 160 of these rockets fell short in Gaza, killing at least nine people, according to the IDF.
The Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a statement countering reports that the event in Jabalya was the result of Israeli military activity.
“We have in our possession videos that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this incident was not the result of an Israel Defense Forces strike,” said the statement, adding, “It has been irrefutably proven that this … was the result of the misfiring of a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad. All fire by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is a double war crime: It is shooting at civilians, and using Gazan civilians as human shields.”
A spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid similarly confirmed that there was no Israeli activity near Jabalya at the time of the incident.
“Islamic Jihad is killing Palestinian children in Gaza. One in four rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel lands inside the Gaza Strip. Iran’s proxies, including Islamic Jihad, have a long history of hiding behind civilians to target Israeli civilians,” the spokeswoman continued. “The world should be outraged at this terrorist group targeting innocent Israelis and killing innocent Gazans.”
