Ha'aretz is reporting the current findings of the
IDF's investigation into the beach deaths on Friday.
It now seems highly unlikely that the beach deaths were due to any artillery fired on Friday. This is not conspiracy theory; it is coming from Israel who apologized for the incident BEFORE they knew if they were responsible. They still don't know.
The head of the Southern Command, Major General Yoav Galant, said Sunday: "There is more than a single piece of evidence that counters the possibility that this [incident] involved artillery shelling. Our shelling ended at 4:51 P.M. [on Friday]. Our observation sources scanned the beach by 4:58 P.M. and they did not witness any unusual activity. This raises serious questions." In addition to the inconsistency between the time of the shelling and the time of the explosion Palestinian witnesses believe the latter was between 5 P.M. and 5:15 P.M. there is a discrepancy between the programming of the shells' target and the actual site of the incident. Sunday, the Palestinians agreed to an Israeli request and released details of the precise location of the incident. Out of six shells fired, five had targeted an area approximately 250 meters north of the site of the actual blast. The first shell, which was not programmed to hit a specific target, was fired at 4:32 P.M., and landed in the northernmost part of the area in question i.e., furthest from the site of the incident.
The IDF has listed two other possibilities: unexploded IDF artillery or a Palestinian mine designed to stop the IDF special forces from landing on the beach in response to an operation from two weeks ago. Some Palestinian witnesses are reporting that Hamas operatives removed all debris from the explosion.
Again, we don't know yet what happened but given the immediate condemnation of Israel without the facts, I think we need to stay informed on this incident.
The New York Times has an article on the time line of the beach which resolves some earlier questions I had.