The 2014 Gaza war beach bombings refers to two attacks that took place during the 2014 Gaza War on 9 and 16 July. In the first bombing, Israeli missiles killed nine Palestinian children and young adults while they were following the 2014 FIFA World Cup on TV. In the second bombing, four Palestinian children were killed by Israeli naval fire while playing on a beach.
The second attack was conducted in front of hotels that sheltered foreign journalists, several of whom witnessed the Israeli shelling, and at least one of whom described the targeting of the children as intentional. Several eyewitnesses have remarked that, even at a distance, it was clear that the targets of the Israeli attack were children. An Israeli military police cleared the IDF of any wrongdoing, but the investigation was criticized by Adalah for only collecting testimony from Israeli soldiers, while ignoring the testimony of both international journalists and the Palestinian witnesses.
A United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, reviewing the evidence, found that the Israeli military had failed in its obligations to adopt feasible measures to avoid or minimize incidental harm to civilians.Report of the detailed findings of the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict, United Nations A/HRC/29/CRP.4 22 June 2015.
9 July On 9 July, a semi-final match between Argentina and the Netherlands was broadcast as part of the 2014 FIFA World Cup knockout stage. In the 48 hours since the outbreak of hostilities, Israel had launched an aerial blitz that struck over 750 locations in the Gaza Strip.
On a beach in the al-'Izbeh area of Khan Younis, roughly 30 metres from the shoreline and 200 metres from housing, around a dozen Palestinians had gathered at the Fun Time Beach café (Waqt al-Marah) to watch a broadcast of the game. The café, owned by the al-Sawalli family,'Bilal al-Astal recounts bombing that killed 9 in Gazan café, where he and others were watching a World Cup match,', B'tselem. and, according to a local PNA-employed policeman, Wael Soboh, not a military area, was a makeshift arrangement covered by cloth, umbrellas and palm leaves, furnished with plastic chairs and a converted container which served as the kitchen. The portable television was powered by a generator.Fares Akram, In Rubble of Gaza Seaside Cafe, Hunt for Victims Who Had Come for Soccer, The New York Times, 10 July 2014. All of the victims were avid soccer fans. It was customary for the two Sawalli brothers, who would be killed in the strike, to break the Ramadan fast at the café, which was also considered a safe place. The other victims also used the café's services for the iftar meal, to break their fast,'World Cup fans killed as Israel raid hits Gaza café' , Ma'an News Agency 10 July 2014. though a survivor said that youths had also come to the café because it had a generator for its television, and there had been an electrical outage earlier in Khan Yunis.Robert Tait, 'Half of Gaza's dead 'are women and children', The Daily Telegraph 10 July 2014.Max Blumenthal,'The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza', Nations Books, 2015 p.27. Palestinians like many in the Arab world, it was reported, could follow the games by courtesy of the Israeli broadcast service.Associated Press, 'Arabs watch World Cup courtesy of Israel', Ynet 9 July 2014. The youths were aware that the Gaza Strip was being bombed, but heard no aircraft in their vicinity, and were relaxed.
Half an hour into the match, at 11:30 p.m., an Israeli missile blasted the flimsy roof of the improvised café cratering the site and killing 3 sets of brothers and a cousin, Two 15-year-olds were killed, and 3 people were wounded, including a 13-year-old boy. The missile's impact was such that it left a hole so deep seawater seeped in from underground to fill it.John Davison, 'World Cup fans killed as Israel raid hits Gaza café' , Yahoo News 10 July 2014. The body of Salim Sawalli could not be found immediately, but later the following day bulldozers managed to find his remains, bringing the death toll to 9. Gaza's emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra commented: "Israel won 9-0". A bystander Ahmed al-Aqad made a similar quip: "And the result from this match here? The Jews won 9-0,". Another 15 people were wounded.'World Cup fans killed in Gaza as bomb hits café', Middle East Eye 10 July 2015.
Those killed were: Ahmed Astal (18), Suleiman Astal (16), Musa (16, a cousin of the Astals), Mohammed Ganan (24), Ibrahim Ganan (25), Hamdi Sawalli (20), Ibrahim Sawalli (28), Salim Sawalli (23, body not recovered) and Mohammed Fawana (18).
IDF investigation The IDF said it was investigating this incident and another bombing with substantial civilian casualties on the same night roughly three hours later in Khan Younis Refugee Camp which killed 8 members of the Al Haj family.Kashmira Gander, 'Israel-Gaza crisis: Eight killed in Gaza Strip cafe while watching World Cup semi-final', The Independent 10 July 2014Aron Heller and Najin Jobain, Israel escalates aerial offensive on Gaza.', Yahoo News 10 July 2014.Aron Heller, 'Airstrikes Leave 80 Dead In Gaza; Still No Israeli Fatalities', TMP News July 10, 2014,"Israeli Offensive on Gaza Continues: 69 Palestinians Killed, of Whom 60 Are Civilians, Including 22 Children and 13 Women, and 469 Others Wounded, Mostly Civilians, Including 166 Children and 85 Women; Driver of Press Vehicle Killed; 70 Houses Destroyed" , Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 10 July 2014. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor stated that Hamas was exposing Palestinians to Israeli attacks by operating "within houses and streets and neighborhoods which are populated with civilians,... exposing these civilians to retaliation and to backfire."Kia Makarechi, 'Israel's Attacks on Gaza Intensify, ABC News Admits Mistake', Vanity Fair 10 July 2014.
Israel said the incident was designed as a precision strike with the missile aimed at a single terrorist, and Peter Lerner, the IDF spokesman, said that in such operations, no warning is given. The spokesperson did not have information on the identity of the target.
Responses to Israel's preliminary investigation Human Rights Watch, after an investigation, cited the case as an apparent example of Israel targeting civilian structures and people in violation of the laws of war. No evidence had been provided that any in the cafe had been engaged in terrorist activities.Israel/Palestine: Unlawful Israeli Airstrikes Kill Civilians', Human Rights Watch, 16 July 2014.
16 July Just after 4 p.m. an offshore Israeli naval vessel fired two rounds into a beachfront area in Gaza City's harbour. The port was closed that day, after Israel had prohibited fisherman from venturing out to sea. The four friends had gone to the beach to play in a cooler area; they met some journalists there, one of whom played some football with them. One journalist also told them the area was dangerous.Naomi Zeveloff, 'A Year Later, Palestinian Family Mourns 4 Boys Killed on Gaza Beach,' The Forward 14 July 14, 2015 The first shell hit a fishermen's jetty. Several boys were playing in the area at the time. On the explosion at the jetty, they all fled but were unable to outrun the second shell, which landed in their midst and killed 4 boys aged between 9 and 11, all cousins in a family group forming part of the extensive Bakr clan.Jethro Mullen and Ben Wedeman, 'They went to the beach to play': Deaths of 4 children add to growing toll in Gaza conflict', CNN News 17 July 2014. This brought the Palestinian death toll through a week of hostilities to 213, among whom 43 were children, according to Hamas; 1,600 had been wounded. Israel in the same period suffered one fatality, Dror Hanin, killed by a mortar shell near the Erez Crossing.Ayman Mohyeldin, Paul Ziad Nassar, 'Innocent and Gone: Israeli Strike on Gaza Kills Four Children', NBC News 17 July 2015. According to survivor Hamad Bakr, the boys were playing hide-and-seek at the time. NBC News Foreign Correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin testified on his Twitter account that just a few minutes before the shelling, he came across the boys while returning to his hotel from the office, playing in a sidestreet and kicked a football with the children, who then went down to the beach to continue playing.Glenn Greenwald, 'NBC News Pulls Veteran Reporter from Gaza After Witnessing Israeli Attack on Children' , First Look Media 17 July 2014.
The killed were: Ismail Mohammed Bakr (9) Zakaria Ahed Bakr (10) Ahed Atef Bakr (10) Mohamed Ramez Bakr (11). The injured were: Hamad Bakr (13) with shrapnel wounds in his chest. His father's fishing boat was located at the site. Muntasir (Motasem) Bakr (11) wounded in the head and legs Mohammad Abu Watfah (21) hit in the stomach by shrapnel. A fourth person, a man in his 30s, was also hit in the stomach.
Several journalists were present during the incident, and some directly observed it at approximately 200 metres distance from the Al-Deira hotel. After the jetty explosion, the four, 3 of whom were visibly children at that distance, jumped from the harbour wall and ran frantically across the open space towards the safety of the hotel, waving and shouting as they raced past beach tents, in the direction of the journalists in the hotel. Within 40 seconds, according to Peter Beaumont of The Guardian, a second shell, lobbed after the aim was apparently adjusted to target the fleeing survivors, exploded in their midst.Peter Beaumont, 'Witness to a shelling: first-hand account of deadly strike on Gaza port', The Guardian 16 July 2014.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commented: "The story with these four boys is a tragedy (...). Let's be clear, the Israeli military does not target civilians".'Four boys killed on Gaza Beach', All In with Chris Hayes 17 July 2014. 2:52 minutes in
At the funeral soon afterwards, Abdel Kareem Bakr, an uncle of the victims, said: "It's a cold-blooded massacre. It's a shame they didn't identify them as kids with all of the advanced technology they claim they're using." An IDF comment stated that while it was investigating the incident, a preliminary analysis indicated that Hamas terrorist operatives had been targeted, and that the civilians were victims of "a tragic accident." NBC almost immediately ordered its reporter Ayman Mohyeldin to leave Gaza, citing security concerns given the imminence of an Israel ground invasion. He was replaced by another NBC foreign correspondent, Richard Engel.
Israeli internal investigation and the United Nations Commission response