IDF Not Responsible For Tent Fire in Rafah

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The IDF conducted an airstrike in Rafah on May 26, on a car traveling outside the “humanitarian zone” where the IDF has guaranteed the safety of civilians. The target was two senior Hamas commanders, Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar. Shortly after the car was hit, a fire broke out in a tent a kilometer-and-a-half away, killing 45 civilians. The world promptly blamed Israel for that fire, charging it with having deliberately hit the tent. More on what Israel was accused of, and what actually happened, can be found here: “Israeli Military Suspects Hamas Munitions Caused Deadly Rafah Fire,” by Joshua Klein, Breitbart, May 28, 2024:

The deadly fire that broke out in Rafah following an Israeli airstrike outside the designated “humanitarian zone” Sunday night may have been caused by the secondary detonation of Hamas munitions located near a civilian safe zone, according to the Israeli military.

The airstrike, which eliminated several senior Hamas commanders, has been the subject of international condemnation due to the apparent civilian casualties. However, Israel said it prepared carefully and followed international law in launching a precision strike that was not anticipated to cause wider damage.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is currently investigating the possibility that the deadly fire, which broke out after the airstrike at a complex housing displaced Gazans in Rafah, was caused by the secondary detonation of Hamas munitions or other flammable material stored near the target of a precise airstrike against senior Hamas terrorists, according to IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, who provided further details about the incident in an English-language press conference on Tuesday.

Hagari explained that the IDF conducted a targeted strike on senior Hamas terrorists in Rafah based on precise intelligence, which unintentionally ignited a fire that killed 45 civilians. He emphasized that the strike was away from the humanitarian zone, using minimal explosives, and the fire’s cause is under investigation, with suspicions that nearby stored Hamas weapons may have detonated.

“Signals intelligence intercepted some phone calls that reinforce this concern, raising the possibility that weapons stored in a nearby compound caught fire,” he said before playing a recorded call in which Gazans discuss the explosion.

Hagari assured a thorough and transparent investigation into the incident, vowing it would be “swift, comprehensive, and transparent.”

The IDF reportedly fired two 17-kilogram munitions at senior Hamas terrorists in Rafah on Sunday night, which were too small to ignite a fire on their own….

These 17-kilogram munitions are the smallest in Israel’s armory, and the IDF has pointed out that they could not ignite a fire on their own. There must have been a secondary explosion of Hamas weapons, stored close to the IDF target.

“Contrary to reports, we conducted the strike outside the area that we designated as a humanitarian area and called civilians to evacuate to. Our strike was over a kilometer and a half away from the al-Mawasi humanitarian area, what we call the safer zone,” Hagari said.

Highlighting the measures taken to avoid civilian harm, he detailed the steps taken before the strike, including “aerial surveillance, using specific munitions to minimize collateral damage, delaying the attack to further assess the expected civilian presence, and other means.”

Before the airstrike on the car, the IDF carefully surveyed the area to make sure there were no civilians in the immediate area, used its smallest munitions so as to minimize collateral damage, and delayed the attack to make doubly sure there would be no civilians in the area at the time of the airstrike.

He also noted that the military is “looking into all possibilities, including the option that weapons stored in a compound next to our target, which we did not know of, may have ignited as a result of the strike.”…

This is the most likely scenario. The IDF had not known that Hamas had stored weapons in a compound next to its target. When that target was hit, flaming shrapnel from that first explosion might have hit the weapons stored in the compound, setting some aflame, which in turn could have set on fire a tent containing civilians, who then perished.

The IDF expressed regret for “any harm to noncombatants during the war” and stated the airstrike targeted legitimate sites based on precise intelligence indicating Hamas’s use of the area….

High civilian deaths were attributed to Hamas commanders operating near a camp for displaced Palestinians close to a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facility, according to reports.

Some Israeli media claimed Hamas exploited Western sensitivities to Rafah casualties, especially after the Biden administration’s opposition to Israeli actions and the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling against Israeli attacks in the area….

Biden originally withheld the shipment of some 500- and 2000-bombs and artillery shells to Israel in order to prevent the IDF from entering the center of Rafah “without a credible plan” for ensuring the safety of civilians in the city. The IDF has continued to push into Rafah without, apparently, presenting that “credible plan.” But the Bidenites have not announced any new holdups of American weapons to Israel, weapons that the IDF needs to successfully prosecute the war. Perhaps the Bidenites have come round to understanding just how essential to Israel’s war aims has the dismantling of the intact Hamas battalions become, and decided to finesse the matter.

Mosab Hassan Yousef has been warning the West that Hamas does not take just Israel as its target. Its real aim is, like that of ISIS, to spread Islam across the globe, until Islam everywhere dominates, and Muslims rule, everywhere. He keeps warning the West that Muslim aggression will only increase If Israel is prevented from attacking the four intact Hamas battalions known to remain in Rafah; the failure of the IDF to dismantle those remaining Hamas forces would give the terror group a boost; it could plausibly claim that it had remained standing despite the IDF’s best efforts to destroy it and so, in a sense, it had “won” the war; it could now regroup in order to attack Israel, as it has promised to do, “again and again.”

And that is why, no matter what the ICJ, or the ICC, or the UNGA, or the EU, or the Bidenites demand, Israel will never agree to halt its offensive in Rafah.

When the IDF has completed its investigation of the entire incident, it will no doubt show exactly the sequence of events, from the initial airstrike to the secondary explosion of Hamas weapons stored nearby that, in turn, caused the fire at the tent where 45 civilians died. That won’t stop the Jewish state from continuing to be blamed for the tent fire by the legions of Israel-haters. But at least the record — for those whose minds are not already made up — will have been set straight.