Black Friday: Carnage in Rafah

On 1 August 2014, Hamas fighters in Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza strip, captured an Israeli officer and took him into a tunnel. What followed became one of the deadliest episodes of the war.

What we saw was not just war; it was like a meat machine making mincemeat from people without mercy.

The Israeli army implemented the Hannibal Directive, a controversial military command designed to deal with the capture of soldiers. It unleashed massive firepower in the neighbourhood surrounding the tunnel, despite the risk to civilians and the captured soldier. The four-day bombardment killed at least 135 civilians, injured many more and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes.

Palestinian witnesses described jets, drones, helicopters and artillery raining fire on road junctions, indiscriminately hitting vehicles, ambulances and pedestrians who had been returning home for a planned ceasefire. All this evidence indicates that Israeli forces committed war crimes in Rafah and possible crimes against humanity, and they must now be held to account.

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Targeting homes and medics

The evidence suggests that the Israeli military had a deliberate policy of targeting family homes. They continued to target homes throughout the war, even after it became clear how many civilians were being killed. Over the 50 days, more than 19,000 homes were destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

Just one example is the Abu Jame’ family, whose three-storey home in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, was bombed without warning by an Israeli aircraft on 20 July 2014, killing 25 family members. “Our house had nothing to do with the fighting,” Tawfiq Abu Jame’ told us. “No one from the family was involved in the resistance, not then, not ever.”

Our house had nothing to do with the fighting.

There is also a pattern of attacks on health workers and facilities. In some cases, the Israeli army repeatedly fired at clearly marked ambulances and paramedics wearing recognizable fluorescent vests.

Paramedic Mohammad al-Abadlah was killed by Israeli gunfire while attempting to rescue an injured man on 25 July 2014 in al-Qarara. “Suddenly we were being fired at directly,” his co-worker Hassan al-Attal told us. “My colleague screamed and said ‘I’ve been shot’… When colleagues got out to try to reach him, they too were fired at.”

Have they genuinely investigated the crimes?

Over the past year, the Israeli and Palestinian authorities have conducted only limited investigations, which have not been independent or effective.

The Hamas authorities have said they are investigating the killings of alleged “collaborators” in Gaza. The Israeli military is looking into some of the alleged crimes by its forces, but such investigations in the past have only served to shield those responsible.

The Israeli and Palestinian authorities have conducted only limited investigations.

In both cases, they are claiming to investigate their own possible crimes, in processes that lack credibility. 

Right now, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which investigates and prosecutes war crimes when governments are unwilling, is considering opening a full investigation into alleged war crimes committed by both sides. We now have an opportunity to move towards bringing those responsible to justice.