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 said.
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. One man was moderately wounded when a rocket hit a factory in the Sha’ar Hanegev region.