The old saying goes that truth is an early casualty in war seems fitting based on the new UN report stating that the child killed in the first day of fighting last November was likely struck by a rocket fired from Gaza and not Israel.
Omar al-Masharawi, an 11-month-old infant, was killed on Nov. 14, the first day of fighting. An Associated Press photograph showed Omar's anguished father, Jihad al-Masharawi, clutching his slain child wrapped in a shroud. Palestinians blamed Israel, and the image was broadcast around the world and widely shared on social media.
Now a report from the U.N. office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says the baby was "killed by what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel."
Gaza's rulers, the militant Islamic group Hamas, whose fighters fired most of the rockets into Israel during the conflict, had no response Monday.
The report cannot be 100% confirmed but based on "information gathered from eyewitnesses" the rocket was attributed to fire from Palestinian militants.
Any civilian causality is a tremendous loss and this information will not help the family's ability to cope but it does show that the fog of war hinders accurate early reporting.