Gaza’a Ministry of Health announced the death of two young men in an air strike by an Israeli aircraft that targeted a group of young people east of the Jabalya refugee camp at dawn Sunday. The ministry said that “two martyrs were admitted to the Indonesian hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, Ayman Nafez Rabeej Al Najjar, 24, and Muhannad Majid Jamal Hamouda, 24.”
But the IDF Spokesperson’s Office issued a statement in Arabic Sunday morning, questioning the credibility of the Ministry of Health.
بدلًا من الحديث بالوقائع والحقائق حول ما جرى في في جباليا يختارون اتهام بشكل مباشر. أتحدى وزارة الصحة التابعة لحماس لتكشف ما هو السبب الحقيقي وراء الانفجار
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee)
“Many testimonies from the Gaza Strip cast doubt on the credibility of the Hamas Health Ministry’s announcement of the deaths of the two terrorist operatives at midnight,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said in a statement distributed on social networks, adding, “What does Hamas wish to hide?”
“Time and again they tell you lies, half-truths. Instead of speaking the truth and telling you what really happened in the cemetery in Jabalya, they prefer to automatically blame Israel,” the announcement continued. “Let’s challenge the Hamas Health Ministry to find out what is really the reason for the explosion.”
On Saturday, thousands of Gazans took part in the funerals of the three terrorists killed in clashes with IDF forces in demonstrations along the border fence. According to the IDF Spokesperson, on Friday, some 7,000 protesters raged along the border fence, and in several areas riots broke out, including stone throwing and burning of tires.
In several incidents, pipe bombs, a Molotov cocktail and a grenade were thrown at IDF soldiers, but all of them fell inside the Gaza Strip. In one incident, several terrorists entered Israeli territory, sabotaged the fence, and fled to Gaza.