An unnamed US official reported to ABC News yesterday afternoon that the Israelis have told the US that they “believe shrapnel or something else from the strike ignited a fuel tank 100 meters away, which engulfed a tent, creating a massive fire.” The official did “not have information to confirm or dispute that information.”
The Israeli Defense Forces added that the strike did not take place in the designated “humanitarian zone” in the al-Mawasi region on the coast, to which the military had called Palestinians to evacuate in recent weeks. The sick joke is that Israel’s “humanitarian” zones were never capable of dealing with a significant fraction of the 1.4 million Palestinians being forced out of Rafah. The al-Mawasi zone was packed a while and the Gaza authorities say crowds spread into adjacent areas. The Israelis have emphasized how carefully they examined the area before striking it and could not have missed the overflowing crowd.
Yesterday the confirmed death toll rose above 50, and the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) stated that a number of victims still lie under the rubble; civil defense crews have been unable to reach them. The GHM released an unusually strong pronouncement:
