Palestinian student Sha'ban al-Dalou, 19, was burned alive along with his mother and others in an October 13, 2024 Israeli airstrike on a refugee tent encampment on the ground of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Palestine.

Palestinian Seen Burning Alive in Israeli Tent Massacre Identified

Sha'ban al-Dalou, 19, was a software engineering student who had survived an Israeli airstrike on a mosque that killed 20 people last week.

Warning: Contains images of death.

The Palestinian photographed while burning alive in a Gaza City tent encampment bombed by Israeli forces on Monday has been identified.

Sha'ban al-Dalou, was a highly promising 19-year-old software engineering student at Gaza's al-Azhar University, which was destroyed by an Israeli bombing last November, two months after he began studying there. Al-Dalou, his parents, and siblings sought shelter in the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza after being forcibly displaced multiple times by Israel's onslaught, for which the U.S.-backed nation is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

"In this barbaric starvation war, we have [been] displaced five times so far," al-Dalou said in an undated video shared on social media.

"I'm taking care of my family, as I am the oldest," the teen explains as an Israeli drone can be heard hovering nearby. "I have two sisters and two little brothers and my parents. We left in... very hard circumstances, suffering... homelessness, limited food, and extremely limited medicine, and the only things between us and the freezing condition is this tent that we constructed by ourselves."

The teen was reportedly receiving treatment at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital after surviving an Israeli strike on a Deir al-Balah mosque that killed more than 20 people earlier this month.

"Yesterday they bombed in front of al-Aqsa Hospital and I was there sleeping," al-Dalou wrote to his brother after the attack, according toThe Siasat Daily, a major Indian newspaper. "I saw death in my eyes. They took me out of the rubble; I was unconscious, bleeding, injured—all like a dream."

"I'm injured in my head; I got 11 stitches behind my ear," he added. "If it was stronger, I'd be dead by now. I've also got an injury in my lung... it really hurts so much."

Al-Dalou, his mother, and at least two other people were killed early on Monday when Israel bombed the hospital's courtyard as they slept, sparking an inferno that tore through the tent encampment there. Video and photos showed al-Dalou burning alive, screaming for help, with an intravenous drip still attached to his arm.

In March, al-Dalou wrote:

I used to have big dreams, but the war has ruined them. It's taken a toll on me, making me physically and mentally sick. I suffer from depression and hair loss because of the constant trauma we face. Time feels like its stopped in Gaza, and we're stuck in a never-ending nightmare.

Responding to the grisly images of al-Dalou's death, Waleed Shahid, a U.S. progressive strategist who worked for lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), said on social media that "the image of hospital patients, tethered to IVs as American-supplied Israeli bombs ignite fires around them in Gaza, may well stand as the defining image of this horror," much as the photo of so-called "Napalm Girl" Phan Thị Kim Phúc does for the Vietnam War.

Al-Dalou, his mother Alaa al-Dalou, and the other victims of Monday's bombing are among the at least 42,289 Palestinians—most of them women and children—killed by Israel's 375-day assault on Gaza, according to officials there, United Nations agencies, and international human rights groups. Nearly 100,000 others have been injured, and at least 10,000 people are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of bombed-out buildings. Millions more Gazans have been forcibly displaced, starved, and sickened.

On Tuesday, multiple media outlets reported that the Biden administration last week warned Israeli leaders that they must take "urgent and sustained actions" to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days or risk losing billions of dollars in military aid from Washington.

COMMON DREAMS

 

Fire breaks out in tents housing displaced Palestinians after Israeli forces bombed the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on October 14, 2024.

 (Photo: Abdallah F.S. Alattar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

'Unspeakable Cruelty': Israeli Strikes on Gaza Hospital, Refugee Camps Kill Dozens

"When will our country stop funding this madness?" asked U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. "When?"

Dozens of Palestinians were killed and many more wounded Sunday and Monday by Israeli attacks on a Gaza hospital and multiple refugee camps, where victims included people queueing for food and a group of children at play.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said at least 10 Palestinians were killed and at least 70 others wounded Monday by Israel Defense Forces shelling of hungry people waiting for flour at a food distribution center in the Jabalia refugee camp, where dozens of homes were reportedly destroyed since Saturday.

Medics said the victims from Monday's strike included many women and children. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said the IDF operates "only against terrorists" and that the attack is being investigated.

Earlier on Monday, at least four people were killed and dozens more wounded in an IDF airstrike on the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital compound in Deir al-Balah, where Palestinians forcibly displaced by Israel's yearlong assault on Gaza were sheltering. The strike caused an inferno that raged through the densely packed tent encampment. Video footage of the attack recorded by journalist Saleh al Jafarawi showed at least one person burning alive as horrified bystanders looked on unable to help.

"We woke up to smoke, flames, fire, and burning pieces falling on the tents from every direction," survivor Om Ahmad Radi toldAl Jazeera. "The explosions terrified us in our tents and outside where we live behind al-Aqsa Hospital."

"The fire trucks couldn't get here," Radi added. "There were so many burned and charred bodies all over the place. The amount of fire and explosions was enormous. We witnessed one of the most horrible and brutal nights."

The Gaza Ministry of Health said most victims were women and children. An IDF spokesperson claimed without evidence that the airstrike targeted a "command and control center" used by Hamas, the Palestinian group that led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Responding to the attack on social media, U.S. Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said that "Israeli forces launched missiles at al-Aqsa Hospital, where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in tents and receiving the very limited healthcare services available."

"ISRAELI FORCES BURNED THEM ALIVE! Can you see the hand?" she said, referring to a graphic image of one of the victims. "This is the extermination of a whole people!"

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)—the only Palestinian American member of Congress— called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "genocidal maniac" who "is burning Palestinians alive, bombing hospitals, starving people, and killing aid workers."

Last week, an independent panel of United Nations experts said that Israel "has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities."

On Sunday, an IDF artillery attack targeting a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp housing forcibly displaced Palestinians killed at least 22 people including 15 children and injured at least scores more.

"There seems to be no end to the horrors that Palestinians in Gaza are forced to endure," U.N. Acting Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya said in a statement Monday. "There really is no safe place in Gaza for people to go."

Earlier Sunday, at least five Palestinian children were killed and at least a dozen others, including women and children, were injured as Israeli forces bombed a group of children playing in the al-Shati refugee camp, according toThe Palestine Chronicle. Some observers said the massacre evoked memories of a 2014 Israeli attack that killed four boys playing soccer on a beach in Gaza City.

Hamas condemned the al-Shati attack as "a horrific crime and a moral degradation that exceeds all limits and norms." The armed group—whose political wing has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades—called for "filing lawsuits before all competent courts, most notably the International Criminal Court," whose chief prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, political chief Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated by Israel—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including extermination.

Israel is also on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Gaza Government Media Office Director-General Ismail Al-Thawabta said over the weekend that Israeli forces have killed more than 300 Palestinians in northern Gaza since the start of the latest IDF offensive there earlier this month. Al-Thawabta accused Israel of waging a "criminal war of extermination" and said it is blocking fuel and other critical supplies from reaching hospitals in northern Gaza.

Since the October 2023 attack, Israeli forces have killed or maimed more than 150,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 10,000 people who are missing and feared dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings, according to Gazan and international officials. Nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, and at least hundreds of thousands of others have been starved or sickened.

Thousands more people have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank of Palestine and in Lebanon, where Hezbollah fighters have launched thousands of rockets and other projectiles at Israel, killing and wounding hundreds.

On Sunday, the United States—which has provided Israel with tens of billions of dollars worth of military aid and diplomatic cover including vetoes of multiple U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolutions—said it would deploy around 100 troops to the key Mideast ally to operate an advanced anti-missile system, sparking further fears of a wider regional war that would likely include an attack on Iran.

"When will our country stop funding this madness?" Tlaib asked Monday. "When?"

COMMON DREAMS

 

‘Heinous massacre’: Israel’s attack on Rafah tent camp widely condemned

Qatar calls attack that killed at least 40 Palestinians a ‘grave violation of international laws’ and UN special rapporteur urges sanctions on Israel.

Video Duration 03 minutes 07 seconds03:07

Published On 27 May 202427 May 2024

Several countries and global organisations have condemned the Israeli air attack on tents housing displaced people in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah that killed at least 40 Palestinians, including many children.

The Palestinian presidency on Monday accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, joining a chorus of worldwide condemnation following the attack.

(Al Jazeera)

“The perpetration of this heinous massacre by the Israeli occupation forces is a challenge to all international legitimacy resolutions,” the Palestinian presidency said in a statement, accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting” the tents of displaced people.

Video Duration 03 minutes 07 seconds03:07

In a statement on X, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said the images from Rafah are yet another testament that Gaza is “hell on earth”.

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Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called the attack a “massacre”, holding the United States responsible for aiding Israel with weapons and money.

Israel’s top military prosecutor described the attack as “very grave” and said an investigation will be conducted. “The details of the incident are still under an investigation, which we are committed to conducting to the fullest extent,” Major-General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi told a news conference, adding that the Israeli army “regrets any harm to non-combatants during the war”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a “tragic mistake” had been made.

“Despite our utmost efforts not to harm innocent civilians, last night, there was a tragic mistake,” Netanyahu said in an address to Israel’s parliament. “We are investigating the incident and will obtain a conclusion because this is our policy.”

Palestinian witnesses and Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad said the camp sheltering civilians in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan area was deliberately targeted.

The Wafa news agency, citing the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said the dead included women and children, with many “burned alive” inside their tents.

One of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah said the “tents were melting and the people’s bodies are also melting” after the attack.

Palestinians put out a fire at the site of the Israeli attack in Rafah [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

Here are some reactions from governments and other officials from around the world:

‘Deliberate bombardment’

• Qatar condemned the Rafah attack as a grave violation of international laws that will aggravate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip. It said the attack could hinder mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Qatar, alongside the US and Egypt, has been engaged in months of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
• Egypt condemned the “deliberate bombardment”. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Israel to “implement the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning an immediate cessation of military operations” in Rafah.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would do “everything possible” to hold “barbaric” Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to account over the deadly strikes. “We will do everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers accountable who have nothing to do with humanity,” he said.
• Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said the bombing of Rafah was “one more day with innocent Palestinian civilians being killed”. He said the gravity of the attack “is even larger” because it comes after the ICJ order directing Israel to halt its operation in Rafah and the rest of Gaza.
• Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin described the attack as “barbaric”. “One cannot bomb an area like that without shocking consequences in terms of innocent children and civilians. We would urge Israel to stop, to stop now, in terms of the military operation in Rafah.”
• Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the attacks are a “material breach of the decision of the highest court of the world”. He added: “We’ve had a compulsory order from the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to stop its attack in Rafah. It is compulsory. It’s binding.”
  Video Duration 06 minutes 56 seconds06:56

• The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel must abide by the ICJ ruling to stop its offensive in Rafah as EU foreign ministers met their Arab counterparts in Brussels hours after Israel’s deadly attack on Rafah.

• Before the EU ministers’ meeting on Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, “International humanitarian law applies for all, also for Israel’s conduct of the war.”

• Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party, labelled Israel’s bombing of the Rafah camp a “monstrous failure of humanity”. In a post on X, he said, “Palestinian children should wake up feeling excited to go to school and play with their friends. Instead, for those murdered in Rafah, their last moments on this earth were filled with unimaginable fear as bombs rained down on their tents.”

‘Children dismembered, burnt alive’

• Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, posted on X: “Days after the ICJ orders Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, the Israeli Government bombs displaced people living in tents. Innocent men, women & children dismembered and burnt alive. Bear witness to the images and ask yourself, are you on the right side of history?”
  Video Duration 02 minutes 36 seconds02:36

• In one of the strongest criticisms Italy has made so far, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said the Israeli attacks were no longer justifiable. “There is an increasingly difficult situation, in which the Palestinian people are being squeezed without regard for the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas and this can no longer be justified,” he said. “We are watching the situation with despair.”
• Jagmeet Singh, a Canadian legislator and leader of the New Democratic Party, posted on X: “The world is failing the people of Gaza. Canada is failing the people of Gaza.”
• US House Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “immediately halt” the assault on Rafah. “The horrific loss of innocent lives today with the bombing of a refugee camp underscores the moral urgency of stopping the Rafah campaign,” he said.
• Aida Touma-Sliman, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and member of the Israeli Knesset, denounced the Netanyahu government for its “madness and vindictiveness”.  Writing on X, Touma-Sliman said, “This bloody government refuses to obey all orders of the tribunal, and is taking the madness and vindictiveness to a new criminal level.”

• Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory, described Israel’s attack on the tent camp in Rafah as “unacceptable”. In a post on X, she wrote, “The #GazaGenocide‌ will not easily end without external pressure: Israel must face sanctions, justice, suspension of agreements, trade, partnership and investments, as well as participation in int’l forums.”

‘Monstrous atrocity’

• Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, called for action against Israel in the wake of its latest attack. Writing on X, he said, “Attacking women and children while they cower in their shelters in Rafah is a monstrous atrocity. We need concerted global action to stop Israel’s actions now.”
• Chris Gunness, former spokesperson for UNRWA, said the three judges at the pre-trial chamber at the International Criminal Court (ICC) “are as horrified as the rest of the world” about the Israeli attack on Rafah. “There is no exception to the Genocide Convention. There are no excuses. This is the crime of crimes,” he said.
• In a statement on X, charity Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) said it was “horrified” by the attack, which “shows once again that nowhere is safe.” It added: “We continue to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza.”
• ActionAid humanitarian group says it was “outraged and heartbroken” by the “inhumane, barbaric” attack on the Rafah camp. “The images coming from our partners of burned bodies are a scar on the face of humanity and the global community, which so far has failed to protect the people of Gaza,” it says, adding that one of its colleagues narrowly escaped, having left the shelter just a day before the attack.
• Triestino Mariniello, a lawyer with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCGR), said the attack on a designated safe zone shows that Israel is still ignoring the ICJ. “These horrible images that arrive from Rafah show that the Israeli authorities are completely disregarding the binding, provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice.”
• In her post on X, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the US-based think tank DAWN, asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “Does burning people in refugee tents count as a ‘serious offensive that fails to protect civilians’ in Rafah?”
• Dalal Mawad, an award-winning Lebanese journalist, also weighed in, writing on X: “In 1996, I saw a decapitated newborn baby in the Qana massacre perpetrated by Israel in a UN displaced camp in the south of Lebanon. I never recovered from that sight. Last night, the same crime was committed again. Impunity means history will always repeat itself.”
  Video Duration 00 minutes 24 seconds00:24

• The African Union Commission under Moussa Mahamat Faki, said the ICJ order must be “urgently enforced if global order is to prevail”. He wrote in X: “With horrific overnight airstrikes killing mostly Palestinian women & children trapped in a displacement camp in Rafah, the State of Israel continues to violate international law with impunity and in contempt of an ICJ ruling two days ago ordering an end to its military action in Rafah.”

• French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged”. “These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” he said on X.

• Saudi Arabia said it “condemns in the strongest terms the continued massacres” carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza. It “affirmed its categorical rejection of the continued flagrant violations by the Israeli occupation forces of all international and humanitarian resolutions, laws, and norms”.
• The United Arab Emirates also “denounced the ongoing Israeli violations in the Gaza Strip”, and called for an immediate ceasefire.

• The United States urged Israel to take every precaution to protect civilians after “devastating images” from Rafah. A National Security Council spokesperson said the US is “actively engaging the IDF and partners on the ground to assess what happened, and understand that the IDF is conducting an investigation”.

ALJAZEERA