Israeli Airstrike Kills 'Picnicking Bankers'

Nothing like the supreme gullibility of AFP. Or, more likely, the willing complicity of working with the terror goons.

An Israeli missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun killed three Palestinians near the border fence with Israel on Saturday, a Palestinian hospital official said.

Israel confirmed the attack amid confused reports on the identities of the three men.

Doctor Muawiya Hassanein, the director of Gaza emergency medical services, initially said the men were militants because of the location of the strike.

Then Hassanein realized he was talking to a duplicitous new outlet and quickly changed gears.

But he later identified them as Mohammed al-Zaanin, Ibrahim Abu Jarad, and Mohammed Hassanein, employees at the Bank of Jordan, who were picnicking near the border with Israel when the missile struck.

"They were in an area near the border and they were having lunch outside. They were not militants, but civilians," Hassanein told AFP.

An Israeli army spokesman said the men were "killed by a land-to-land missile while they were on their way to fire mortars" but could not confirm that the men were carrying weapons.

YNet also has a report.

The IDF confirmed forces operating in the Strip targeted a Palestinian cell en route to launch rocket attacks from against Israeli towns.

The casualties have yet to be identified, largely due to the fact that the bodies were reportedly charred. It is unclear if those killed are indeed gunmen or civilians. Contradictory Palestinian reports say the three were either Fatah political operatives unaffiliated with the movement's military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades or - according to a report by the Associated Press - three Jordanian bankers holding a picnic in an open field with the missile struck.

Reuters has another conflicting account.

Three Palestinian civilians were killed by an Israeli missile strike near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun on Saturday, medical and Hamas officials said.

Family members of the three men killed, identified them as an employee of a Jordanian bank, a former government employee, and a student.