Media outlet: Daily Mirror
Link: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/04/29/family-die-at-breakfast-table-as-israel
i-shell-flattens-gaza-home-89520-20398515/
Date of publication or broadcast: April 29 2008
Journalist: Mark Ellis
Description: Article reporting the deaths of a mother and four of her children in Gaza.

SHORTCOMINGS: DISTORTION OF INFORMATION

Gaza Horror

A mum and four children died at the breakfast table as a shell flattened their tiny home in the Gaza Strip.

It was fired from an Israeli tank in a raid aimed at militants after gun battles nearby.

The latest slaughter of innocent victims threatens an Egyptian attempt to broker a ceasefire deal. The dead children were sisters, six and three, and brothers four and 15 months. Their mother was in her 30s. Her two older children were critically wounded.

Dad Ahmad Abu Meatak, 70, cried in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun: "What a black day. They killed my family."

Israel said it was investigating but held Gaza's Hamas rulers responsible for allowing militants to attack from residential areas.

Hamas allies the Popular Resistance Committees warned: "The blood of the children will not be spilled in vain."

DISTORTION OF INFORMATION:
The journalist states that a shell "fired from an Israeli tank" landed on the house where the Palestinians were killed, without pointing out that Israel vehemently disputes this version of events. An IDF spokesperson made a statement on the day of the incident setting out Israel's view that the damage to the house where the Palestinians were killed, was caused by explosives carried by militants nearby, when they were fired upon by Israeli forces.