Reply #20: One of the annoying tendencies

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of Haaretz's website is that their translated versions tend to be abridged.

According to the Hebrew version, the IDF is currently checking the new fragment.

Also of interest, and omitted from the translated article, is a meeting HRW's Garlasco had with Kalifi:

Also, the Human Rights Watch representative investigating the circumstances of the incident in Beit Lahia, Mark Garlasco, met with Kalifi last night.

After the meeting Garlasco said, that Kalifi explained that "the investigation is still open. We are examining the possibility that it was a 155mm shell which had been fired earlier and exploded during the incident, or that it was a bomb set there".

According to Garlasco, Kalifi told him that the Palestinian authority had cooperated with the investigation of the incident. A day after the incident, the PA transferred to Israel three bags of evidence:

The first sack contained fragments of 155mm shells, which had been gathered in the area of shelling. According to Garlasco, Kalifi explained that the fragments were not thoroughly examined because they had been gathered from a wide area, not just where the family had been hit.

The second bag contained fragments the Palestinians claimed were gathered from the crater of the shell which killed the Ralia family. According to Garlasco, Kalifi explained that the bag contained both old and new fragments and thus no conclusions could be drawn from it.

According to Garlasco, the third sack contained dirt which had been gathered from the same crates, but Kalifi explained that no residue of standard TNT had been found in it. This would seem to rule out the possibility that a shell caused the crater, and supports the claim the explosion was caused by a homemade bomb. However, Garlasco said, even the Qassam rockets the Palestinians fire contain a certain amount of TNT, so it is unlikely to be a bomb.

Garlasco also said that Kalifi told him that the fragment removed from the wounded Palestinian was not from a 155mm shell, but the IDF was unable to conclusively determine its source.

According to Garlasco, there is a likelihood that an IDF shell, which landed on the morning of the incident and didn't explode because it hit the sand, exploded in the afternoon because of the new shelling which "woke up" the detonator.

The committee headed by Kalifi continues in its work and is supposed to report to the Minister of Security and the IDF CoS at the conclusion of the investigation.