In the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of people crowded a cemetery in Beit Hanoun Thursday for the burial of 16 family members and two others killed in an Israeli attack on their homes. Seven of the dead Athamna family members were children, including an 18-month-old girl. Six other victims were women. Another 19 family members were wounded, including four children who lost limbs. At the U.N. Thursday, Palestinian observer Riyad Mansour said Israel had committed “state terrorism.”

Palestinian U.N. observer Riyad Mansour: “This is terrorism. This is state terrorism. These are war crimes for which the perpetrators must be held accountable under international law. What we have seen today and in recent days and months, the blood of Palestinian civilians flowing in the streets, the demolition of their homes and their constant humiliation, suffering and collective punishment, is exactly what the Palestinian people have been subjected to under nearly 39 years of Israeli belligerence.”

Hours after the funerals, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the attack was the result of a “technical failure” with military radar. Olmert said Israel regretted the killings but refused to rule out further shelling of the Gaza Strip. The government’s actions are coming under growing criticism inside Israel. An editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz says, “No excuse can justify this atrocity. When artillery batteries aim their shells near a residential neighbourhood, such a disaster is inevitable.”