(JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces is investigating an attack on a Gaza building that it believed was in use by the Islamic Jihad terror group but that was home to a civilian family killed in the air strike.
Eight members of one family were killed in the attack last week amidst an attack on southern and central Israel by hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza. Israel dubbed its retaliatory attacks against Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets Operation Black Belt.
The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman claimed that the building was a command post for an Islamic Jihad rocket launching unit in the central Strip.
Haaretz first reported, and confirmed with unnamed Israeli defense officials, that the building was on a list of potential targets but that it had not been looked at over the past year or checked for civilians before the attack.
A neighbor told Haaretz that the family had lived there for the last 20 years.
