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Le Monde
Le Monde
31 May 2024


Images Le Monde.fr
Reuters / AFP

Israel-Hamas war: What analysis of Israel's attack on Rafah displacement camp reveals

By , , and
Published today at 11:07 am (Paris)

3 min read Lire en français

On the night of Sunday, May 26, the Israeli army bombed a camp for displaced persons, killing at least 45 people, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. In images verified by Le Monde, the bodies of children can be seen.

Israeli authorities have deplored the deaths of civilians, stating that Monday's attack was not directly caused by their strike, which the IDF described as "precise" and "planned," but by secondary explosions that led to an unexpectedly large fire. Here's what we know.

The target site: A camp for displaced people where children were sheltering

"Al-Salam Camp 1" was set in the north of Rafah, the city in the south of the Gaza Strip, by the Kuwaiti NGO Al-Salam, on January 2. At the time, the NGO claimed to be "building emergency shelters for the Gazan people," totaling 1,000 units, to compensate for the destruction of residential areas in Gaza. To accompany its appeal to Kuwaitis for donations, on January 6 the NGO posted images of the work in progress on Instagram. The images show the wooden structures of future shelters, similar to those that would be destroyed on the night of May 26-27.

In a video posted online by the NGO on February 23, children receive clothes distributed by members of organization.

A 'targeted' strike with considerable collateral damage

On the night of May 26-27, the Israeli army bombed the site. In footage of the strike that was published, two structures forming part of the camp are targeted and destroyed in an explosion. Israel claims to have used two 17-kilogram munitions with "small warheads," which the IDF said was "the smallest munition" that their jets could use. The New York Times was able to identify the munitions as the remains of American-made GBU-39 bombs by examining debris filmed onsite. Israel's claimed objective was to kill two Hamas leaders who, according to its intelligence, were set to meet at the camp.

Although the Israeli army has insisted on the precision of its strike, collateral victims were numerous. In a video released by Israel, four people can be seen walking in the immediate vicinity of its army's targets. In the moments before the strike, they start to run away before disappearing behind the cloud of the explosion.

Many people, including several children, burned to death in the fire triggered by the strike. In particularly violent images, which we have chosen not to publish, Le Monde was able to identify at least eight bodies pulled from the rubble, including those of a child and a teenager.

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