While the mainstream media and pro-Hamas activists are trying to pin the blame on Israel for Sunday’s blast that claimed dozens of civilians’ lives, the initial Israeli military investigation shows that the civilian deaths were likely caused by secondary explosions in a Hamas weapons dump located in a humanitarian area. The incident took place in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah on Sunday, an area outside the IDF’s designated combat zone.
The civilian deaths were caused by “secondary explosions from a Hamas ammunition warehouse near the civilian compound and over 100 meters away from the strike site,” the Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday.
The IDF did not target the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood. The target of the airstrike was a Hamas terror compound — operational base for several terror commanders and terrorist fighters — located over a mile away from the civilian population, the IDF revealed. Hamas’s West Bank terror chief, Yassin Rabia, and his deputy, Khalid Nagaar, were eliminated in the strike.
Considering the civilian population nearby, the IDF used light explosives in the precision strike on the fortified Hamas compound in Rafah, the Israeli military probe disclosed.
The Times of Israel on Thursday reported the IDF findings:
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that a hidden store of weapons may have been the actual cause of a deadly blaze in southern Gaza’s Rafah, and that an airstrike that targeted an adjacent area had used small munitions that would not ignite such a fire on their own.The military suspects that the 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 Rafah, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians, following an airstrike targeting two top Hamas terrorists in the area. (…)In an update on its investigation of the incident, the IDF said 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 located just a few dozen meters away from where the two commanders were killed.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, the military said.
Meanwhile, Hamas continues to use civilian areas and humanitarian supplies to wage war against Israel.
Standing up to the international pressure, the Israeli military vowed to destroy Hamas’s last-standing terror stronghold in Gaza and bring back the hostages.
“Hamas is in Rafah. Hamas has been holding our hostages in Rafah, which is why our forces are operating in Rafah,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Thursday. “Hamas is holding our hostages in living hell across our border in Gaza, including in Rafah. We will not stop fighting for their freedom.”
The Israeli ground troops, supported by the air force, were locating and destroying Hamas’s terrorist fighting capabilities in the stronghold. “IDF troops continue operational activity in the area of Rafah. During one encounter with terrorist operatives in the area, three terrorists who fired toward IDF troops were identified and struck by the IAF [Israeli Air Force],” the military said in a press release Thursday. “Over the past day, IDF troops also located terrorist infrastructure and large quantities of weapons, including anti-tank missile launch posts, tunnel shafts, a weapons storage facility, and explosives.”
The military struck Hamas terror targets across Gaza. “Furthermore, over the past day, the IAF struck over 50 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military structures and terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF statement added.
Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepted a cruise missile over Golan Heights fired from Iraq, a country serving as the base for several Iran-backed terrorist groups.
“Following the siren that sounded in the area of Margaliot, the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon,” the IDF disclosed Thursday. “Earlier today, following sirens regarding a hostile aircraft infiltration in the Golan Heights area, the IDF intercepted a cruise missile that approached Israel from the east.”
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