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Experts Question New York Times Accusation that Israel Targets Gaza Kids
(Times of Israel) Diana Bletter - On Jan. 30, as Israeli and Thai hostages were being released from Hamas captivity amid chaotic mobs, Maj. (ret.) John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, noticed that the weapons held by Hamas gunmen were M16 and M4 rifles which use 5.56 mm bullets, the same rifles that Israeli soldiers use. This cast serious doubts on the allegation made in the New York Times on Oct. 9, 2024, implying that Israeli soldiers were deliberately targeting children during the Gaza war. The report included X-ray pictures appearing to show 5.56-mm rounds lodged in children's heads and necks. Ahmed Shaddad Halmy Brikeh, 13, appeared on the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry's monthly fatality list as a victim of "Israeli aggression" in August. But Brikeh's cousin reported online that the teen was shot dead by Hamas gunmen while trying to obtain food from a humanitarian aid shipment. "Hamas wants everybody and anybody who died to be counted as Israel's fault, including killing people themselves," Spencer said. There have been no reliable direct accounts of Israeli soldiers deliberately targeting Gazan children. Nonetheless, foreign doctors volunteering in Gaza have repeatedly accused Israeli soldiers of systematically targeting children, though they only had secondhand knowledge of the circumstances of the shooting.