Israel set to deny role in Gaza beach killings

JERUSALEM, June 13 (Reuters) An investigation by the Israeli army indicates it was not responsible for a blast on a Gaza beach last week that killed seven Palestinian civilians and set off a storm of protest, a senior military official said.

The Palestinians, mostly members of the same family, were killed on Friday in the northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian witnesses said an Israeli artillery shell had killed them.

A senior Israeli military official told Reuters the explosion was likely caused by a landmine planted by a Palestinian militant group and not the result of Israeli fire.

He said the findings, based on evidence from radar tracking, videos and fragments taken from the bodies of victims, would be in a report to be released later today.

Dan Halutz, the chief of staff of the Israeli Defence Force, was due to hold a news conference on the findings of the report at 8 pm (2230 hrs ist), an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

The Gaza blast occurred on a day of heavy Israeli shelling nearby.

''On Friday night, I had the feeling it was Israeli activity. On Saturday, I thought it was 50:50, now I am convinced it was not,'' said the military official, who asked not to be identified because the investigation has still not concluded.

The official also said the army was unsure where one of six artillery shells it fired on Friday had landed. But other military sources have said that Israeli forces stopped shelling about 10 minutes before the explosion on the beach.

Television footage shot immediately after the explosion and broadcast around the world showed an 8-year-old Palestinian girl running panicked and distraught as she realised her father and several other relatives had been killed.

The images fuelled condemnation of Israel's shelling of Gaza, it says is a response to Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. In the wake of the killings, the ruling Hamas militant group scrapped a 16-month truce with Israel.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed his condolences over the deaths, saying he regretted the loss of life, but did not admit any responsibility.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, on a visit to Europe, reinforced the military's line today, saying it was possible Palestinian militants were responsible.

''There is a situation in which maybe ... this was an explosive that was put on the beach for future attacks on Israel,'' she told a news conference in Luxembourg after meeting European Union officials.

''We are looking into the facts right now,'' she said.

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