The Israeli army admitted, on Saturday, that its forces killed two Palestinians and wounded a third, on the Gaza beach, in response to a video clip from the Qatari Al Jazeera channel, which showed a man falling to the ground after walking in an open area, then a bulldozer pushing two bodies into sand filled with garbage. .
The army said that the forces opened fire after ignoring warning shots, according to what was reported by the Associated Press.
Al Jazeera broadcast the video clip at the beginning of this week. Its source is still unknown, nor is the date of the incident known.
Al Jazeera said that at least two of the three men were waving white flags in the grainy video clips before the shooting.
This came after a series of similar clips that appeared in recent months, in which Palestinians in Gaza appeared being shot or killed, even though they did not pose any threat to the Israeli forces near them.
In response to the shooting on the beach, the Israeli army said on Saturday that the clip was distorted and showed two separate incidents in two different locations in central Gaza. Al Jazeera said that the two shooting incidents occurred near each other on a beach, southwest of Gaza City.
In the video clip, a man was seen walking away from the Israeli forces before he fell to the ground, apparently after being shot. He was seen raising his hands above his head at one point.
Al Jazeera said that he was waving a white flag in the moments before he was shot.
In a different part of the video clip, a Palestinian was seen approaching Israeli forces, waving what Al Jazeera said was also a white flag, before he disappeared from the camera frame.
Finally, an Israeli bulldozer was seen dragging the bodies of two men through the sand, one after the other. The army said the bulldozer was used for fear that there might be explosives attached to the two men.
He added that the two men who were killed were carrying bags, but no bags were seen in the blurry video. The army stated that the injured man was later released after being interrogated, according to the Associated Press.
Al Jazeera reported that all the men in the video clip were trying to return to their homes in northern Gaza, from where they were displaced at the beginning of the conflict.
The north has witnessed the greatest level of destruction since the outbreak of the war 6 months ago, and there is suffering to deliver aid to the remaining Palestinians there.
Palestinians and rights groups say the Israeli army used disproportionate and indiscriminate force in its attack on Gaza, resulting in a heavy civilian toll.
They added that even when the killings were filmed, military investigations rarely resulted in charges against the soldiers involved.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties because it says Hamas operates in civilian areas. The army did not say whether the beach shooting would be subject to investigation.
Israeli attacks killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Strip’s Ministry of Health.
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