Jerusalem, Sept 02: Israeli defence minister Binyamin ben Eliezer today created a commission to look into the deaths of Palestinian civilians, including children killed in recent raids, his office said. After dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed in recent weeks during Israeli military operations, ben Eliezer ordered chief of staff General Moshe Yaalon to produce a report by friday on the causes of death and means of avoiding them in the future, a statement said.
Four Palestinians were killed yesterday in an army ambush close to a Jewish settlement near the southern West Bank town of Hebron. Witnesses said the victims were workers walking home from their jobs in a quarry.
On Saturday night, two children and two teenagers were killed by mistake during an operation targeting a Palestinian militant in the West Bank.
A woman, her two sons and one of her nephews were killed last week in the shelling of a house in a Gaza city neighbourhood.
And on July 22, an Israeli f-16 dropped a one-tonne bomb on a heavily-populated neighbourhood, in an operation aimed at killing the Hamas military leader Salah Shehade.
Apart from the leader of the radical group's armed wing and his bodyguard, 15 other people, including nine children, were killed in the raid, drawing a barrage of international condemnations.
According to army radio, military officials voiced their "discontent" after ben Eliezer's office announced the creation of the commission, arguing that its recommendations could restrict the army's operations on the ground. Bureau Report