Colonel Ilan Malka, who headed the Givati Brigade during the December 2008-January 2009 war against Gaza, told investigators that he did not know there were civilians in a building that came under attack on January 5, 2009 after he ordered the strike, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported on Sunday.
Israeli officials claimed the attack was an "operational error," saying the army had intended to attack a weapons stockpile nearby.
The bloody attack, which was denounced by the United Nations as "one of the gravest" of the deadly offensives of the war, claimed the lives of 22 members of the Samuni family, ten of whom were minors.
Twenty-nine members of the family, which lived in Gaza City's Zaitun neighborhood, were killed, and 49 others were injured in the war, making the Samunis the family that suffered the most fatalities during the conflict, which the Israelis call Operation Cast Lead.
According to a UN report issued by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, Israel used disproportionate force and deliberately targeted civilians in the Gaza war.
The war claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians, including over 900 civilians.
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