From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
IDF says it used small munitions in Rafah strike, believes ammo sparked secondary explosion
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israeli military suspects munitions or some other combustible substance it was unaware of caused a secondary explosion and a fire to spread in a complex housing displaced Gazans in southern Gaza’s Rafah, killing Palestinian civilians, following an airstrike on two top Hamas terrorists in the area.
The military says it had been tracking Hamas commanders Yassin Rabia and Khaled Najjar ahead of the strike on a compound they were in on Sunday night, in the Tel Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah. According to the IDF’s intelligence, the area had been used for Hamas activity, with a rocket launcher just a few dozen meters away from where the two commanders were killed.
The military says 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. The targeted Hamas compound is more than a kilometer away from the humanitarian zone.
According to the IDF, the strike was not intended to harm any civilians and it had carried out steps ahead of the attack to ensure that no women or children were in the Hamas compound.
Israeli fighter jets also used two small munitions in the strike, each with a 17-kilogram warhead (37-pound), in an attempt to prevent any civilian casualties, given the close proximity to the camp for displaced Palestinians.
Still, following the strike, a fire spread in the adjacent complex where Palestinian civilians were sheltering. According to Hamas health authorities in Gaza, 45 people were killed and dozens more were wounded.
The two small missiles on their own would not have been enough to spark the fire, according to the IDF’s initial probe.
The military was further investigating what exactly had sparked the fire. The IDF’s initial probe suspects ammunition, weapons, or some other material was stored in the area of the strike, causing a secondary blast and a fire that spread and killed Palestinian civilians.
