What Caused the Latest Civilian Deaths in Rafah?

On May 26, after an explosion of a fuel tank that set fire to tents in Rafah, 45 civilians died. The Israeli government has called these deaths a “tragedy” and vowed to investigate the series of events leading to the fire. Most of the world, however, their minds already made up, have denounced the IDF for what it suggests was a wanton and deliberate killing of Gazan civilians. More on what caused those deaths in Rafah can be found here: “Israel tells US shrapnel from Rafah strike may have ignited fuel tank,” JNS, May 28, 2024:

Shrapnel from an Israeli strike in Rafah on Sunday night may have ignited a fuel tank, starting a fire that engulfed tents housing displaced Gazans and leading to dozens of noncombatant deaths, Israeli officials have told the Biden administration.

A U.S. official told CNN that according to the Israelis, a precision munition was used in the strike.

“We can’t confirm that but it’s what Israel shared with us,” the official said, adding that “we assume we will learn more once Israel completes its investigation.”

The IDF successfully hit its intended target in Rafah, a jeep carrying two high Hamas officials, killing both. The IDF was unaware of the kind, or amount, of weapons, that were in the jeep. The IDF did not hit any target other than the Jeep. But the explosion caused a rocket or mortar emanating from the exploding jeep to manage to travel 330 feet, where it apparently managed to hit a fuel tank, which then exploded, setting nearby tents housing Gazans aflame. That is how the 45 civilians were killed, unintentionally, and at a very great distance — 330 feet — from the IDF strike on the car.

ABC News cited a U.S. official as saying that the fuel tank was located around 100 meters (330 feet) from the area targeted in the airstrike.

It sounds as if the Bidenites have confirmed the IDF claim that the fuel tank set aflame was about 330 feet away from the original target.

The IDF was unaware of the precise nature, and amount, of the weapons and munitions carried on the Jeep. Nor could the IDF have foreseen that following the jeep’s explosion, a mortar or rocket it had been carrying could have travelled and hit a fuel tank some 330 feet away.

The IDF did not know that there were weapons in the jeep carrying the two Hamas military men, much less their precise nature. It could not have foreseen that the explosion of the jeep would cause one or more of the rockets or mortars it was carrying to shoot out and hit a fuel tank some 300 feet — the length of a football field — away. That, in turn, caused the fuel tank to explode, and to set on fire tents located nearby, killing at least 45 Gazans and wounding 20. This was a freak accident, entirely unforeseeable.

But that fact will not keep the UN Security Council from passing a resolution — if the Bidenites choose to abstain from voting, rather than vetoing it — denouncing Israel for what the world has decided to treat as a deliberate attack by the IDF on civilians in Gaza, and not, as Prime Minister Netanyahu has correctly called it, “a tragic mistake.” How could the IDF possibly have known that a “precise” strike on the jeep would lead to a huge explosion, and that the weapons it carried, unbeknownst to the IDF — rockets and mortars — would be sent hurtling toward a fuel tank 330 feet away, causing it to explode, and then that explosion of the fuel tank would, in turn, lead to tents being set on fire, killing 45 civilians?