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JERUSALEM – Thousands of Gazans attended Monday the funeral of three Palestinian boys killed by an Israeli air strike along the security fence with Israel the day before.
The Israeli army said three people had been seen sabotaging the security fence and had apparently put an explosive device under cover of darkness.
The militant factions in Gaza accused Israel of killing the boys "in cold blood" and claimed that their claims that they planted a bomb had been fabricated.
In light of Monday, nothing seems to indicate that there is an explosive device in the area. But it was suggested in Israel that the militants would have sent the boys on as scouts to check whether the area was under army surveillance or to cut a hole in the fence so that others could cross it later.
It was only the last murderous episode in the cauldron of tensions that the border region has become.
The dead were identified as Khaled Abu Saeed, 14; Abdul Hamid Abu Dhaher, 13; and Muhammad al-Satari, 13 years old.
In the village where the boys lived, in Wadi al-Salqa, in the southern Gaza Strip, it was said that they could have set nets to hunt the birds, although the security fence – a known danger zone, especially at night – barely visible place to catch wildlife.
The boys were neighbors and lived about a mile from the border. Their relatives said that they did not know what they were doing the night near the fence.
The mourning tents were filled with visitors and decorated with banners from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Israeli leaders are increasingly under political and public pressure to either reach a stable ceasefire agreement with Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza, or to try to crush Hamas by force.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he preferred to devote more time to the efforts of the Egyptian mediators and the United Nations to reach a truce agreement.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he saw no chance of a ceasefire with Hamas without "the hardest possible blow." But he acknowledged that he was in a minority of the security cabinet, where decisions of large-scale military operations are being conducted and where, he said, most members "do not think like me."
Around the time of the air strike that killed the boys Sunday night, residents of Israeli communities along the border blocked a main exchange in Tel Aviv.
Their protest came after an intense outbreak of violence over the weekend, the fourth in recent months.
Gaza militants launched nearly 40 rockets in southern Israel between Friday evening and Saturday morning, and the Israeli air force fought back with strikes on more than 90 unarmed militant targets in Gaza.
In addition to sporadic rocket and mortar fire, incendiary balloons from Gaza have caused hundreds of fires on the Israeli side of the border, burning forests and farmland.
Thousands of Palestinians continue to attend Friday's weekly border demonstrations, which often include the launching of grenades and incendiary bombs and efforts to cross the fence, according to the army.
Called "the great march of return", the demonstrations are orchestrated by Hamas to pressure Israel to lift its blockade on the coastal territory imposed with the help of Egypt and to make claim his claims regarding land in present-day Israel. Israel says it is acting to prevent infiltration and protect nearby civilian communities.
Israeli gunfire has killed more than 200 Palestinians since protests began on March 30, according to health officials in Gaza. They said another 27-year-old man was shot dead during a protest Monday in northern Gaza near the border with Israel.
