An Israeli airstrike that left 86 people at a Gaza refugee camp dead was a “regrettable mistake” that should “not have happened”, a Knesset spokesperson has said.
The devastating blast tore through the Maghazi site east of Deir al Balah on Christmas Eve.
It killed more than 12 women and seven children, figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry revealed.
Eylon Levy, an Israeli Government spokesperson, has admitted that the incident was a severe error that was down to the use of “incorrect munition”.
He told Sky News it was a “regrettable mistake” that “should not have happened”.
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But Levy still refused apologise for the loss of innocent civilian life, although he said that “any civilian deaths are regrettable”.
The spokesman added that in war it is “inevitable that mistakes will be made”.
He said: “We will not apologise for waging this campaign to bring the Hamas terror regime to justice.”
This comes after the IDF said it was reviewing the report of the airstrike in Maghazi.
A spokesperson said: “A preliminary investigation revealed that during the attack, additional buildings were damaged adjacent to the targets that were [meant to be] attacked.
“[This] apparently resulted in harm to those not involved….The IDF regrets the harm to those not involved.”
Ashraf al-Qidra, a Palestinian health ministry spokesman, described the incident as a “massacre” on a “crowded residential square”.
Footage of the injured being taken to hospitals was released by the Palestinian Red Crescent aid organisation.
Earlier this month, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said he told Israel to protect civilians in Gaza and ensure attacks against Hamas be “surgical”.
Up to 21,320 Palestinians have died and 55,603 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, a Gaza health ministry spokesperson said in an update on Thursday.
Israel’s bombing campaign has also displaced almost all of the 2.3 million residents living in Gaza.
A Human Rights Watch report has alleged that Israel is “using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime”.
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