Israeli army acknowledges mistaking bike for rocket-propelled grenade in deadly Gaza strike
JERUSALEM
The Israeli army has admitted to mistakenly targeting two Palestinians who were riding a bicycle in the Gaza Strip.
The army published a video in which it initially said two gunmen were targeted in a drone strike in Gaza City last week for allegedly carrying a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).
The allegation, however, proved wrong as it emerged that they were riding a bicycle.
“The army apologizes for this mistake,” the Israeli army spokesman’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement said the initial information gathered before the raid indicated that the two Palestinians were armed.
“When the video was published, the bike that someone was pushing was highlighted, which was mistakenly thought to be an RPG.”
According to the statement, the incident will be investigated by the army.
Defending the action, the military spokesman’s office said: “The area filmed in the video is an active combat zone, where many battles took place between Israeli army forces and militants.”
The New York Times on Tuesday quoted Mohamed Qariqa, a researcher at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory, as saying that the two men were returning home after trying to obtain humanitarian aid amid a crippling Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
According to the researcher, one was killed and the other injured in the Israeli attack.
Israel has waged a retaliatory offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 which killed nearly 1,200 people. The offensive has killed around 31,200 Palestinians and injured over 72,900 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
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