2006 shelling of Beit Hanoun

Israel stated that the shelling was in response to a Qassam rocket attack from that location, possibly from a car driven into the area.[5] According to the Israeli military, the artillery had misfired due to a malfunction of the guidance system.[6][7] At least 40 people were wounded. Thirteen of the dead belonged to the same family.[4][8]

On 15 November 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted resolution S-3/1 which called for a fact-finding mission, consisting of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Professor Christine Chinkin of the United Kingdom to travel to Beit Hanoun.[13] The resolution was accepted by a wide margin, with only seven countries opposing and six abstaining.[14]

In reaction to the resolution, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel released a statement noting that Israel had already expressed regret regarding the incident, decrying the UN's "ignoring of the ongoing terrorism against Israeli civilians by the Palestinian terrorist organizations", and expecting the UN "to show a more balanced and fairer approach toward Israel and not to automatically adopt any notion from those whose only desire is to discredit Israel."[15]

On three occasions, the mission attempted to travel to Beit Hanoun via Israel. Each of these attempts was frustrated by the refusal of the Government of Israel to cooperate with the mission.[16] The mission finally visited Beit Hanoun from 27 to 29 May 2008.

In its final report, the mission concluded that "[I]n the absence of a well-founded explanation from the Israeli military – who is in sole possession of the relevant facts – the mission must conclude that there is a possibility that the shelling of Beit Hanoun constituted a war crime."[17]

Tutu has vigorously protested the overall response to the incident: "The right to life has been violated not just through the killings [in Beit Hanoun], but also through the lack of an adequate investigation of the killings."[18]

Andrew Exum has stated that the Israeli military had a "long history of mistakes causing many civilian casualties." About the 2006 shelling, he said that: "it was found it was caused by a faulty programming card in a counter-battery radar system, called Shilem, designed to track an enemy projectile's trajectory back to its point of origin and direct artillery fire back at that spot. The inquiry also found that the artillery crew had not recalibrated their weapons overnight and did not have spotters monitoring whether their fire was accurate, so 12 to 15 artillery shells were fired before it was realised they were hitting an apartment complex. It is not clear what changes the IDF made to its targeting methods as a result."[19]

• Video: Technical Error at Beit Hanoun, documentary featuring interviews with surviving members of the al-Athamneh family; the executive director of B'Tselem; and the head of the Israeli Defense Forces foreign-press unit (interviews conducted in January 2007).