From the Liveblog of
Monday, May 27, 2024
IDF says it did not expect Rafah strike to harm civilians, took steps to avoid hitting them
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Israel’s military says it took steps to reduce harm to civilians before carrying out a strike targeting two senior Hamas officials that reportedly killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in southern Gaza’s Rafah last night, and did not think it would affect innocent Gazans.
The airstrike in the Tel Sultan area of western Rafah targeted and killed the commander of Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters — charged with advancing attacks against Israel in and from the West Bank — as well as another top member of the unit, according to the army. But Gazans say the strike set off a major conflagration in an area packed with displaced Gazans sheltering in tents and makeshift housing, killing 45.
The strike was carried out based on “intelligence information on the presence of the terrorists in the area,” the Israel Defense Forces says in a statement. Before launching the action, the army carried out “many steps to reduce the chance of harming uninvolved [civilians], including aerial surveillance, the use of precision munitions, and additional intelligence information.”
It says that “based on [these steps] it was estimated that no harm was expected to uninvolved civilians.”
The military’s top-tier General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism will probe the Israeli airstrike, the IDF announces.
The mechanism is an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war. The probe was ordered by Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Yomer, the IDF says.
A military source says two missiles with a “reduced in size” warhead, which were adapted for such targets, were used in the strike.
The IDF notes that the strike did not take place in the designated “humanitarian zone” in the al-Mawasi region on the coast, where the military has called Palestinians to evacuate to.
