Shimshon 9

It may not be only Ehud Olmert who is so busy worrying about his legal problems that he does not have enough time to address Israel’s urgent security issues. Many Israeli citizens, except of course residents of the South, are probably also completely engrossed in studying the details of the current investigations and have little time left to worry about what really needs to be worried about - the ongoing war in the South. One can only hope that the Israel Defense Forces and its commander, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, are continuing to take seriously the awesome responsibility with which they are charged - assuring the safety of the people of Israel.

The Israeli Navy in pictures.

Military inquiry into incident which left Palestinian mother, four of her children dead, concludes family was hurt by detonation of weapons carried out by nearby gunman targeted by IAF missile. Army releases footage caught by UAV proving missile did not target Gaza home.

The IDF inquiry presents the following picture:

• At around 8 am, a cell of four terrorists was spotted firing at Givati troops operating in the Beit Hanoun area. IDF officials in the command room followed the cell, confirmed that they were terrorists carrying explosives, and attempted to determine the place where they would be attacked by an IAF aircraft.

• The cell members were spotted moving 400 meters (1,312 feet) away from the forces. At 8:13 am, an aircraft fired at two of the cell members, killing one of the terrorists wounding the other. The army continued to follow the injured terrorist, and about a minute later the aircraft fired another missile at him, identifying an accurate hit.

• Footage released by the IDF on Friday shows that civilians standing several meters away from the terrorist were not hurt, as the missile used to target him was accurate. The location selected by the IDF to target the second terrorist is close to a grape orchard, where not every civilian can be seen, and about 3 meters (9.8 feet) away from the gate of the Palestinian family’s home.

• Seven minutes after the second missile was fired, reports were received about civilians being hit, and several hours later it was reported that the family members were killed. According to estimates, weapons carried by the terrorist caused the heavy damage. The house’s gate is believed to have flown at the family members, who were at the time outside the house, inside the grape orchard.

• A number of sub-blasts took place following the first explosion, as a result of the weapons carried by the terrorists, which were not directly caused by the missile explosion. As part of the inquiry, the IDF examined previous incident in which similar missiles were fired.

See the Video Footage here.