Rights groups slam Israel over refusal to reinvestigate killing of Gaza children

GAZA CITY, Palestine – Palestinian rights groups have condemned an Israeli court decision rejecting a request to reinvestigate the killing of four children by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2014.

The four boys were killed in an Israeli airstrike while playing on a beach in the Gaza Strip on July 16, 2014.

On Sunday April 24, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by three Palestinian groups to reopen an investigation into the killings.

The appeal was filed by Palestinian group Adalah, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

“The children of the Bakr family were targeted in 2014 with several shells by Israeli drones,” Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said in a joint press conference in Gaza.

“Those children did not pose any threat to the occupation forces. Rather, they were playing football during a truce declared by the occupation,” he added.

Sourani accused the Israeli judiciary of providing a cover to the crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians.

Issam Younis, the director of Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, said the three rights groups will pursue their efforts to bring the case of the death of the four children to the International Criminal Court (ICC).