The family of a Palestinian man seen burning to death in a blaze in tents after an Israeli strike in Gaza have recounted their feelings as flames engulfed the camp.
Israel says the attack early on Monday targeted a Hamas command and control center by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, and that it is investigating the cause of the blaze, but believes it was probably sparked by a secondary explosion of ammunition at the site. It accused Hamas of putting civilians in harm’s way by operating among them.
Hamas denies any terror operatives were present.
Vivid footage of the incident has resonated strongly at a time when Israel faces concern from allies about its conduct in the war in Gaza. The US State Department described the incident as “horrific.”
Footage of the aftermath showed Shaban al-Dalou, who would have turned 20 on Wednesday, lying on his back amid burning debris and waving his arms as flames raged all around him.
A university student studying computer science, he would post videos on social media telling people his family’s displacement stories and his dream of leaving Gaza. In a video posted in March, filmed from their tent in the hospital’s courtyard, he said his family fled their home in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood when the war began in October last year. Since then, he said, they had moved five times to escape fighting.
Three other people died, including Dalou’s mother Ala’a Abdel Nasser al-Dalou, 37.
“I can’t describe the feeling. I saw my brother burning in front of me and my mother was burning,” said Dalou’s younger brother Mohammed, 17, who said he ran out of the tent when he heard the blast.
The initial scene was filmed by several witnesses and posted online before appearing around the world in news reports. Reuters was able to verify the time and location of two of the videos of the incident by matching structures, debris, and benches.
A journalist contracted by Reuters who reached the scene later filmed a rescue worker lifting Dalou’s charred body wrapped in a blanket.
Israel’s military said it had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a command and control center in the area of a parking lot” next to the hospital.
“Shortly after the strike, a fire ignited in the hospital’s parking lot, most likely due to secondary explosions. The incident is under review. The hospital and its functionality were not affected by the strike,” it added.
“The IDF is taking numerous steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the military said.
Israeli officials have not said what specifically might have caused a secondary explosion to ignite the tents.
In one of the videos Reuters reviewed, a series of more than 20 small bangs were audible amid the fire, as well as two small explosions that sent showers of sparks flying. A medic at the hospital told Reuters those blasts were caused by cooking gas canisters exploding, which Reuters could not independently confirm.
“I heard the sound of bombing, I looked out and saw very black smoke next to our tent,” said Mohammed al-Dalou, speaking to Reuters at the location of the strike in Deir al-Balah, where charred ground and twisted debris lay between still-standing tents.
He ran out of the tent and saw his father pulling out his younger siblings. Then he saw his older brother Shaban in flames. He tried to reach him, but people held him back, he said.
Dalou’s aunt Karbahan al-Dalou and her family were also there.
“I suddenly woke up to fire burning towards me and my children,” she said.
She saw her nephew and sister-in-law burning and waving their hands. “I can’t describe to you how disturbing it was,” she said at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis where her family was taken after the fire.
The war in Gaza has been ongoing for more than a year since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack last year when Hamas terrorists stormed border defenses and raided Israeli communities, murdering around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.