Hamas leaders in Gaza announced Saturday that a young child had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. The child was identified as Ali Muataz al-Shawaf, 4.
Pictures of the child’s bloody body were published in Palestinian Authority media outlets.
However, IDF officials later revealed the story as a lie. There was no Israeli airstrike in the region in which the child was killed, they asserted.
IDF officials confirmed that a Gaza terrorist was killed in an airstrike elsewhere in Gaza. The 25-year-old terrorist was targeted as he prepared to launch a rocket at southern Israel.
Gaza terrorists fired dozens of rockets at southern Israel over the course of the Sabbath. Israel has invested in shelters in order to attempt to protect civilians from the unprovoked terror rocket attacks, whereas the Hamas government, which uses civilians as shields, has not.
One man was moderately wounded when a rocket hit a factory in the Sha'ar Hanegev region.