Israel/OPT: New evidence of unlawful Israeli attacks in Rafah causing mass civilian casualties

• At least 95 civilians – nearly half of them children killed in four unlawful strikes in Rafah
• Attacks took place in southern governorate supposed to be “safe”
• All four strikes are likely direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and must be investigated as war crimes

The organization carried out an investigation into four Israeli strikes, three in December 2023, after the humanitarian pause ended, and one in January 2024, that killed at least 95 civilians, including 42 children, in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost governorate at a time when it was supposedly the “safest” area in the strip, but where Israeli forces are currently gearing up for a ground operation. Such an operation will likely have devastating consequences for more than a million people who are crammed within an area of 63 km2 following successive waves of mass displacement.

In all four attacks, the organization did not find any indication that the residential buildings hit could be considered legitimate military objectives or that people in the buildings were military targets, raising concerns that these strikes were direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and must therefore be investigated as war crimes.

Even if Israeli forces had intended to target legitimate military objectives in the vicinity, these attacks evidently failed to distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and would therefore be indiscriminate. Indiscriminate attacks that kill and injure civilians are war crimes. The evidence collected by Amnesty International also indicates the Israeli military failed to provide effective, or indeed any, warning – at minimum to anyone living in the locations that were hit – before launching the attacks