Since it's been a while since Israeli soldiers have been accused of killing innocent Palestinian children (and I'm not saying that they didn't), I figured I'd cobble together the various reports that are coming out of Gaza this afternoon.

I'll copy in the main body from the most recent Reuters report.

Israeli troops killed three Palestinian youths (near Rafah's Tel a-Sultan neighborhood in the) Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian witnesses said, triggering mortar bomb fire on Jewish settlements and threats by militants to drop a de facto truce.

The killings were the first since militants agreed with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in March to abide by the cease fire, and leading militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas issued warnings to Israel but stopped short of ending the truce.

The circumstances surrounding the killing of the Palestinian youths and the numbers were disputed by Israel and the Palestinians, but Abbas called it a deliberate violation of the truce he and Sharon declared at a summit in Egypt in February.

"UNARMED CHILDREN"

"The Palestinian youths who were killed were unarmed children and did not pose a threat to Israel," Abbas said in a statement. Palestinian medics and witnesses said three youths aged between 14 and 16 were killed (or 14 and 15) (or all 14).

Local residents said the Palestinian youths were playing soccer (in a playground about 50 meters from the border fence) in Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza when Israeli soldiers, meters (yards) away, (fired warning shots) (or, without warning suddenly) shot and killed them (from an armed vehicle) (while they were running after the ball).

An Israeli military source said troops along the Gaza-Egypt border spotted five Palestinians crawling and then running toward them in an (unauthorized) area (or into Israeli territory) where militants smuggle in weapons using tunnels from Egypt.

(Israel Radio reported that Palestinian security services notified Israel they had detained two boys who were not hit by IDF fire, and that the group of five youths were smugglers.) (Or not.)

"Soldiers fired warning shots in the air, but they continued to run toward them. When they were meters away, the troops shot and hit two of them," the source said, adding the army had launched an investigation into the incident.