The Israeli missiles struck tents in an area to the west of Rafah city, which was supposed to be safe from attack.

Gaza officials say the death toll from Israeli air strikes on a camp housing displaced Palestinians near Rafah in southern part of the strip has risen to 40.

“The massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in the refugee tents northwest of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip has left 40 martyrs and 65 wounded,” Mohammad al-Mughayyir, a senior official at the civil defence agency, told AFP news agency.

The attack led to a massive fire, which Palestinian Civil Defence teams managed to extinguish after about 45 minutes.

“The air strikes burnt the tents, the tents are melting and the people’s bodies are also melting,” one of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah was reported as saying by the Reuters news agency.

Doctors without Borders, known by its acronym MSF, said “dozens of wounded” as well as more than 15 of the dead had been brought to a facility that it supports.

  • MyEdgyAltEnglish
    229·
    7 months ago

    It’s tough being an informed consumer of news given that we know both Israel and Hamas lie their asses off, so it’s basically equally likely:

    • Israel murdered more civilians for fun / to advance their genocide
    • there’s crystal clear video showing that the rockets were launched from these tents, or by people who were living in them (which, ignoring that Israel’s theft of land and brazen mass slaughter motivating these attacks, would traditionally make this a legitimate military target). Of course even in this case, a non-terrorist/genocidal country could use means to attack that are more selective. Israel just likes to specifically use non-selective attacks to cause as much collateral damage as possible%20to%20secure%20that%20end.).

    It sucks.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      154·
      7 months ago

      I’ve seen some pictures that the rockets were launched from what seemed to be the east of Rafah close to the border but no videos that they were launched from this tent camp. This tent camp was in the west of Rafah.

      Brix camp to the west of the city of Rafah.

      The previous attack from Hamas on israels military base next to the Ker Shalom crossing was launched more than 350 meters away from the nearest civilian area, Which is pretty impressive considering how densely populated Rafah is.

      I might have missed some footage though, if you have additional footage feel free to link it.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          124·
          7 months ago

          “Israel claims” being the key words here. Their claims don’t hold any weight whatsoever and newspapers publishing their claims without pushback is pure propaganda.

          February 12, 2024 - Amesty International: Israel/OPT: New evidence of unlawful Israeli attacks in Gaza causing mass civilian casualties amid real risk of genocide

          Fresh evidence of deadly unlawful attacks in the occupied Gaza Strip, gathered by Amnesty International, demonstrates how Israeli forces continue to flout international humanitarian law, obliterating entire families with total impunity.

          The organization carried out an investigation into four Israeli strikes, three in December 2023, after the humanitarian pause ended, and one in January 2024, that killed at least 95 civilians, including 42 children, in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost governorate at a time when it was supposedly the “safest” area in the strip, but where Israeli forces are currently gearing up for a ground operation. Such an operation will likely have devastating consequences for more than a million people who are crammed within an area of 63 km2 following successive waves of mass displacement.

          In all four attacks, the organization did not find any indication that the residential buildings hit could be considered legitimate military objectives or that people in the buildings were military targets, raising concerns that these strikes were direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and must therefore be investigated as war crimes.

          And this not even mentioning all the hospitals that israel claimed were Hamas bases which turned out to be complete lies. And “UNRWA being Hamas” etc etc.

          • MyEdgyAltEnglish
            42·
            7 months ago

            Completely agreed. That said, this pre-October-7th article does list a person with the same name as one of the claimed targets of this attack giving statements on behalf of Hamas, so assuming they aren’t lying about having killed him, in this particular case the claims seem plausible. They attacked a Hamas member and included their preferred amount of collateral damage.

            • Tryptaminev@lemm.eeEnglish
              3·
              7 months ago

              Kamel Abu Bakr is a name like Peter Miller. Both Kamel as a first and Abu Bakr as a last name are super common.

              • MyEdgyAltEnglish
                2·
                7 months ago

                The other one, Yassin / Yasin Rabia. Which for all I know could also be like John Smith.

                Senior Hamas member Yasin Rabia, responded to the attack, saying[…]

                That was the name I saw in reports about the Rafah killings.

      • MyEdgyAltEnglish
        21·
        7 months ago

        Thanks, I hadn’t looked into this one in more detail.

    • NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
      51·
      7 months ago

      No no it was precision fire, with precision munitions, with precision intelligence that just all went to hell.

      All accidental, move on, nothing to see here

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      Israel isn’t even claiming the rockets were launched from there, so your speculation is unfounded.