Beit-Lahya Massacre

In a relatively new, back then, Israeli massacre in northern Gaza on January 4, 2005, eight martyrs, including children, were killed. This prompted Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the President of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and a presidential candidate for the first time, to describe Israel as the "Zionist enemy" during an election rally. Israel considered these statements unforgivable.

At seven in the morning on Tuesday, Israeli tanks fired several shells towards a group of young men and children from the Ghubn and Al-Kaseeh families who were gathering in front of their homes. This resulted in the martyrdom of 8 individuals, 6 of them from the Ghubn family, and the injury of 14 people. Most of the martyrs were children between the ages of five and sixteen, despite not being in a prohibited area; they were in front of their homes.