The five young members of the al-Astal clan, aged between six and 14, were walking to their UN-run school in Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp yesterday morning when one of them apparently kicked out aimlessly at an unexploded Israeli tank shell lying on the ground. In the ensuing blast, all five were killed.
"I got here soon afterwards and saw parts of bodies," said a shaken teenage Gaza boy at the scene. "One of them was still alive. I saw him take a breath and die."
The tragedy, which shattered several days of relative calm in the tense Israeli-Palestinian conflict, occurred as President Bush was briefing his new Middle East peace envoys - the retired Marine general, Mr Anthony Zinni, and the State Department's Mr William Burns - who set off for the region on Sunday with the deceptively simple task of brokering a ceasefire.
"This is how [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon is welcoming the American delegation," said a bitter Mr Ahmed Abdel Rahman, cabinet secretary of the Palestinian Authority.
Initially, Palestinian media reported that the five children had been hit, at school, by Israeli tank fire. The Israeli army quickly retorted, however, that it had not been engaged in any activity in the area.
Later, a Palestinian security official, Col Khaled Abu Ula, cited eyewitness reports and other findings to suggest that one of the children had kicked an unexploded Israeli shell. There were also suggestions that the fatal device might have been a mine.
An Israeli spokesman expressed grief at the deaths. "Any time children are hurt, we certainly share the sorrow of the families and I would like to send our condolences," said the spokesman, Mr Arie Mekel, adding, "We really have no idea what was the source of that explosion. It could also be Palestinian explosives."
Israel Radio, however, reported that the blast had been caused by an Israeli tank shell fired a few days ago.
The children died on the outskirts of Khan Younis, which has been the scene of innumerable Israeli-Palestinian clashes over the past 14 months of the intifada. Close by are the Jewish settlement of Ganei Tal and a permanent Israeli army position.
Near the Israeli border with the West Bank, later yesterday, Palestinian gunmen drove a jeep into an Israeli factory and opened fire, injuring two workers - one of them an Israeli, the other a Palestinian.
In other incidents, Israeli troops arrested six alleged Islamic militants in a raid north of Ramallah, and closed down Palestinian Authority offices in Azariyah, on Jerusalem's eastern edge.
Israeli military officials also said they had defused a roadside bomb placed on a route taken by children from Gaza settlements. Israel's Ha'aretz daily reported yesterday that PA security forces prevented Tanzim gunmen from carrying out a shooting attack near Tulkarm, with the local PA commander said to have told the gunmen he'd "break their arms and legs" if they were caught again.
Mr Bush is said to have given his envoys two weeks to achieve the ceasefire. While Mr Zinni is being widely described as a bulldozer, Israeli and Palestinian officials are highly sceptical of his chances of making the deadline.