Bahr El-Baqar primary school bombing: Israeli bombers strike an Egyptian school. Forty-six children are killed.
The Bahr el-Baqar primary school in the Egyptian village of Bahr el-Baqar (south of Port Said, in the eastern province of Sharqia) was bombed by the Israeli Air Force on 8 April 1970, killing 46 children. Of the 130 children who attended the school, 46 were killed and over 50 wounded. The school itself was completely demolished. The attack was carried out by Israeli Air Force F4 Phantom II fighter bombers, at 9:20 am on Wednesday April 8. Five bombs and two air-to-ground missiles struck the single-floor school, which consisted of three classrooms.There has been significant dispute between both parties as well as their allies over the motive of the attack and, consequently, its appropriate designation. While Egyptian and Arab sources regard the attack as a deliberate massacre, nay a war crime, intended to impose a ceasefire, Israeli and Western sources consider it to be a human error on the Israeli side made under the impression that the school was an Egyptian military installation.The attack was conducted as part of a series of deep penetration strikes named Operation Priha, which also included the earlier bombing of Abu Zaabal factory, where 80 civilian workers were killed. While the Abu Zaabal bombing was immediately admitted by the Israeli government to be mistake, the bombing of Bahr El-Baqar was repeatedly defended by then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, and Israeli envoy to the UN Yosef Tekoah, at the time. Official sources claimed to have collected images of the school by reconnaissance satellite consistent with military settings and that some students were receiving military training.