Israeli precision-guided munition likely killed group of children playing table football in Gaza, weapons experts say

The last time Mona Awda Talla saw her daughter Shahed alive, she was leaving the house to buy her a cake, wearing pink pants. The 10-year-old stopped to play table football with her friends next to the pastry shop in Gaza’s Al-Maghazi refugee camp. Moments later, she was dead.

Grief-stricken and sobbing, Awda Talla said she still cannot believe her only daughter will never come home. A video showing the aftermath of the attack that killed Shahed shows her sprawled on the ground next to her friends, her pink pants impossible to miss.

“There is no more Shahed now. Every time she came in, she would say, “Mom.” I would say, ‘My soul, my soul,'” Awda Talla told CNN. “My soul is gone.”

In the two weeks since the attack, the Israeli military’s statements have changed, but it has not taken responsibility for the attack that ultimately killed Shahed and 10 other children.

An analysis of the attack site, documented by an independent journalist working for CNN in Gaza, paints a very different picture of Israeli military responsibility. Three munitions experts, who reviewed videos and photos showing the damage caused by the strike and the shrapnel left behind by it, independently reached the same conclusion: that the carnage was likely caused by a munitions munition. precision guidance deployed by the Israeli army.

Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British army officer and weapons expert who has experience investigating munitions used by Israel in Gaza, said that based on available footage of the aftermath, he believed the strike was “absolutely” caused by a precision-guided missile. fired by an Israeli drone.

“It’s certainly a lightweight, drone-fired missile,” Cobb-Smith said. “There is a certain aspect of this particular missile that is very obvious: it is clearly a small munition,” and that has devastating consequences, he added.

The missile landed just a few meters from Shahed and his friends sitting at the table football. At this distance, their death was inevitable.

CNN documented fragments of munitions recovered from the scene by Shahed’s uncle, including what appeared to be part of a circuit board. The strike left a small crater in the road and images from the scene showed surrounding buildings riddled with tiny holes, which weapons experts said was indicative of fragmentation caused by a sophisticated missile.

Chris Lincoln-Jones, a former British military officer and drone warfare expert, told CNN that the circuit board discovered at the scene was crucial to distinguishing the munition. The artillery shells have very few electronic components and a circuit board suggests a sophisticated precision-guided weapon has been deployed.

NR Jenzen-Jones, a munitions specialist and director of the research company Armament Research Services (ARES), said that “the remains strongly suggest a guided munition, most likely a guided missile or an errant munition”, but added that he was not able to conclusively identify the specific type of weapon from the fragments.

Cobb-Smith said he believed there was “no doubt” that an Israeli munition was used in the attack, saying Palestinian militants “don’t have anything that sophisticated” in their arsenal.

The Israeli military monitors the Gaza Strip almost constantly, and weapons experts CNN spoke with said this type of munition would not be fired without a prior assessment of the area, raising questions about how whose decision was made to carry out the strike.

Growing questions have been raised about the Israeli military’s chain of command, particularly in light of an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call into the military’s use of artificial intelligence to help to evaluate and approve bombing targets.

The Israeli military’s changing response

CNN has asked the Israeli military for details of the strike, which took place on April 16 around 3:40 p.m., according to video evidence.

Two days after the attack, in response to CNN providing the time and coordinates of the attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had struck a “terrorist target” in Al-Maghazi but refused to provide details. additional details. An IDF spokesperson said they were not aware of the number of casualties, but that the incident was being investigated and the army was working to locate the strike in its records.

Two weeks later – and three days after CNN shared its analysis of the strike in which the children were killed – the Israeli military said it had no record of it.

“The strike in question was carried out at a time different from that described in the request and was approved on the basis of specific indications from the intelligence services,” said the Israeli army statement, referring to the request for CNN response. “The collateral damage as described in the request is not known to the IDF. »

But Palestinian journalists from Al-Maghazi said there were no further airstrikes that day. Metadata for videos filmed on two different iPhones immediately after was time-stamped at 3:40 p.m., the time CNN provided to the IDF.

The Israeli military refused to provide additional evidence to support its claims. He also refused to answer questions about the nature of the target or whether any militants were killed.

The ongoing impact on children

A week after the strike, children had already returned to play table football where Shahed and other children were killed.

But they said they were still afraid.

“When the strike hit, I was on my way to play table football,” said Mahmoud Beha Abdel Lattif. “Every time before I go to sleep, I think about what happened here. I don’t sleep well, I’m always afraid to sleep.

Sama, one of Shahed’s friends, was with her the day she was killed – spared only by her thirst.

“I went home to drink water and the strike hit,” said Sama, wearing a beaded necklace that Shahed had made for her. “I miss her a lot.”

Others were not so lucky.

For nearly 16 days, 8-year-old Ahmed Abu Jayyab fought for his life in a hospital bed at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.

He died Thursday morning, becoming the eleventh child killed by this strike.

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