July 14, 2018: Amir an-Nimra, 15, was killed by a bomb dropped by an Israeli F-35 Fighter Jet on a public park in Gaza City.
Amir was killed with his friend Luay Kahil, 16. The bombing of the park and the building next to it also caused injuries to at least 25 other Palestinians, including numerous families and children who were walking and playing in the park.
The bombing was part of a wider campaign carried out by the Israeli Airforce on Saturday evening, in which Israel F-16 warplanes fired at least five missiles into the park and a building next to the park, in addition to firing missiles into another area, west of Gaza city, and Palestinian lands in al-Jala’ area, in northern Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health added that the Israeli missiles also targeted ambulances, the Central Medical Emergency building, and several mobile clinics.
The targeted public square, known as al-Kateeba, is near al-Azhar and the Islamic Universities, and is surrounded by several government ministries and facilities. It is also used by Palestinian factions when they celebrate certain events, such as the anniversaries of their establishment.
Being one of the few green and public squares in Gaza, it has a public park, slides and swings for the children, and is usually overcrowded with people, especially in the evenings after dark, due to the heat.
Besides killing the two children, and wounding at least 25 other Palestinians, the Israeli missiles destroyed one ambulance, damaged nine other ambulances, partially damaged three trucks used for transporting medicine and medical supplies, severely damaged a number of administrative offices for medical emergency and transportation, in addition to causing damage to two civilian transporting vehicles.
Israeli media claimed that 4 Israelis in Sderot were injured when the sound from a Palestinian shell near their house shattered their fish tank, and the glass from the fish tank cut them.
The Palestinian shells have been described as little more than fireworks, which are fired across the border with Israel and usually hit farmland. Occasionally they hit a building, and leave holes of two to three inches, but seldom do they cause damage beyond that.
25 Palestinians were wounded by the Israeli bombing, many of them critically wounded with severe injuries from the missiles dropped by F16 jets on the civilian population. A number of those injured are children and women who were out walking in the park when the bombs were dropped, according to Ashraf al-Qedra of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The latest escalation in violence by Israeli forces follows a three month period in which Israeli forces repeatedly attacked non-violent protests with live ammunition, massacring 137 Palestinians, and wounding more than 15,000 others, since the outbreak of the protests, on March 30th 2018.
On Monday July 9th, the Israeli authorities escalated their economic siege of Gaza by completely sealing the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing, which was the only way that food and medical supplies had been able to enter Gaza apart from underground tunnels.
The Great March of Return protests began on March 30, for the commemoration of Land Day, when, in 1976, six Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces, after protesting the confiscation of their land.
Demonstrations reached a peak on May 14, which marked 70 years since the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, by Zionist militias – upon which more than 60 protesters were shot dead by the Israeli forces.
Over 137 Palestinians have been killed and some 15,000 others injured, since the outbreak of the protests, on March 30th 2018.
Amir was from Gaza City, in the central part of the Gaza Strip. Source: IMEMC