Rafah massacre: how Israel bombs displaced Gazans in their tents
Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, 26 May 2024
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 27 May 2024:
In complete darkness, a fire is burning in an entire block of tents in the Israeli-designated “safe zone” for displaced Palestinians, northwest of the city of Rafah. As people run in terror from the conflagration, the fire itself forms the only source of light, revealing the truth of what is happening in the displacement camp.
A man is carrying the body of a child. The body is missing a head. We can see dismembered hands extending from the mangled torso. The legs are also severed. The man holds the body aloft as if he wants to show everyone what happened here.
The video of the harrowing scene has since gone viral.
Another video posted by survivors shows a man with severe burns lying on his back with extended hands. The fire had consumed his body and disfigured him beyond recognition. People pulled him out of the fire and tried to extinguish some of the flames that were still burning his body.
In the background, fires are burning in more than 30 tents for the displaced in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to move. The Israeli army announced that it had been targeting “senior” Hamas officials and that the airstrike was “precise.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later reportedly said it was a “tragic mistake.” At least 45 people were killed, including 23 women and children, and 249 people were injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Mondoweiss gathered testimonies from survivors. Every account described experiencing a massacre, which gained particular meaning given that the Israeli army had told them to go there in order to avoid being harmed. The area where the airstrike took place was called the “Kuwaiti Peace Camp.”
This is not the first incident Mondoweiss has documented where the Israeli army has targeted people in “safe zones.” Neither was the Rafah massacre the only one on that day — the army carried out 7 massacres across Gaza that have left 66 Palestinians dead in the past 24 hours.