“They Were Only Children”

On May 28, 2021, the front page of the New York Times published pictures of children and adolescents killed in the Gaza Strip and Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls with the headline, "They Were Just Children." The Times listed the names of 67 children under the age of 17 who were killed, two in Israel and 65 in the Gaza Strip.
 
A few days later the Times printed a retraction, reporting that one of the pictures was of a child killed under other circumstances and not during the hostilities.
 
However, it was not the Times' only inaccuracy. An Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center examination of the list revealed that the name of one of the children belonged to a Hamas military-terrorist wing operative. He was Muhammad Sabar Ibrahim Suleiman, 16, killed on May 11, 2021, in an attack in the eastern part of Jabalia along with his father, a commander in Hamas' military-terrorist wing (the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades)
 
A video issued a few days after the end of the hostilities shows Muhammad Sabar Ibrahim Suleiman wearing an Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades uniform and learning to shoot a machine gun and other weapons. The instructor next to him is also wearing an Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades uniform (@DigFind Twitter account, June 1, 2021). Thus despite his young age, he had been recruited by Hamas to its military-terrorist wing.
 
Another Gazan boy, who according to the New York Times list died in  Operation Guardian of the Walls, was found to be an operative in  Hamas' military-terrorist wing. The Times' list also included the names  of eight children who were killed by terrorist organization rocket  misfire.
 
Previously, Khaled Imad Khaled al-Qanua (Abu Suheib), who was identified by the New
York Times as a 17 year-old boy, was found to be a 20 year-old terrorist operative. He
was killed on May 13, 2021, in an aerial attack on a Palestinian terrorist squad near Beit
Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. The Mujahedeen Brigades, the military-terrorist wing of the Mujahedeen Movement, whose leadership split from Fatah and are today allied with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and close to Iran, issued a mourning notice stating he was an organization operative and 20 years old (Mujahedeen Brigades' Telegram channel, May 13, 2021).
 
At least eight of the children whose names were on the list were killed by terrorist
organization rockets that misfired and fell inside the Gaza Strip on May 10, 2021:
Baraa al-Ghrabi, 4, from Jabalia.
Ibrahim Hassanein, 16, from Beit Hanoun.
Mustafa al-Abir, 17, from Beit Hanoun.
Hussein Hamad, 11, from Beit Hanoun.
Yazen al-Masri, 2, from Beit Hanoun.
Marwan al-Masri, 7 from Beit Hanoun.
Ibrahim al-Masri, 11, from Beit Hanoun.
Rahaf Muhammad Atallah al-Masri, 10, from Beit Hanoun.
 
Most of the remaining 55 were killed when the IDF attacked terrorist targets and the
children were either on site or nearby. Some were related to terrorist operatives who or
whose houses were the targets of IDF anti-terrorist attacks. Some were killed when two
buildings collapsed after the IDF attacked terrorist tunnels close to their foundations. Hamas used the tunnels as command centers, to store weapons and as hidden passageways for operatives to move between posts.
 
The IDF carried out about 1,500 aerial attacks, and despite its efforts to avoid harming
civilians in general and children in particular, Hamas' tactic of positioning its command
centers in the heart of densely populated areas led directly to the unfortunate deaths of
more than 50 children. At least 120 non-combatants (including the children) and 111 terrorist operatives from the various organizations were killed in the IDF strikes.
 
After Operation Guardian of the Walls, Yahya al-Sinwar, head of the Hamas political
bureau in the Gaza Strip, admitted that positioning the terrorist headquarters in civilian
structures was "problematic," and by implication led to civilian casualties (al-Jazeera,
June 5, 2021)