Israeli media reports say that an Israeli occupation army probe into the assassination of Hamas's top commander found an intelligence failure led to the deaths of 13 civilians in the F-16 missile strike on the Resistance leader's house. Salah Shehada, the commander of Hamas's armed wing, his deputy, and 13 civilians -- including nine children -- were killed when the Israeli fighter slammed a one-ton missile into his Gaza City home on July 23.

Shehada's wife and a daughter were among the dead.

Most of the casualties lived in adjoining houses damaged by the guided missile that flattened Shehada's house. The attack was criticized by the international community including the United States, which called it "heavy handed."

"However, the inquiry found lapses in the information and assessments regarding the proximity of innocent people to Salah Shehada," it said in a statement.

Israeli television said among the faults uncovered in the probe was a lack of intelligence information collected on the target and a failure to analyze available information correctly.

The occupation army claimed the timing or methods of the strike would have been changed if civilian deaths were seen as likely. Occupation army officials have said that several other attacks on Shehada were canceled at the last minute due to the proximity of civilians.

The attack caused the highest civilian death toll since Israel adopted a policy of targeting and killing suspected Resistance leaders after a Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.

Haim Ramon, a senior politician in the center-left Labour Party, joined a chorus of domestic criticism of the attack to charge that civilian deaths could have been avoided if the cabinet had been party to the decision-making process.

The occupation army claimed that as a result of the inquiry "operational lessons" and "conclusions" had been drawn in order to prevent a similar incident from occurring.

Israeli occupation authorities claimed that Shehada was behind the killing of scores of Israelis in attacks by the Resistance Hamas group. They said he was in the final stages of planning a series of what they call "mega-terror attacks."

PHOTO CAPTION

An Israeli military probe into the assassination of Hamas's top commander found an intelligence failure led to the deaths of 13 civilians in the F-16 missile strike on the militant's house, the army said August 2, 2002. People inspect the damage July 23 to their homes after the strike in the Gaza Strip. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)