‘BLACK FRIDAY’: CARNAGE IN RAFAH DURING 2014 ISRAEL/GAZA CONFLICT 1 Table of Contents ‘Black Friday’: Israel’s Mass killing of civilians in Rafah during 2014 Gaza conflict ....................... 1 Executive summary ................................................................................................................. 6 Background .......................................................................................................................... 16 Occupied Palestinian Territories .......................................................................................... 16 Operation Protective Edge .................................................................................................. 16 Hannibal Directive ............................................................................................................. 19 Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 10 Amnesty International methodology ..................................................................................... 10 Forensic Architecture methodology ...................................................................................... 12 Witness testimonies ........................................................................................................ 12 Site survey ..................................................................................................................... 12 Satellite image analysis................................................................................................... 12 Media analysis ............................................................................................................... 13 Video to space ............................................................................................................... 13 Geo-synching ................................................................................................................. 14 Metadata analysis ........................................................................................................... 14 Shadow analysis ............................................................................................................. 14 Plume and smoke cloud architecture ................................................................................ 14 ‘Black Friday’ ....................................................................................................................... 16 About the report ................................................................................................................ 21 From ceasefire to carnage ................................................................................................... 22 Ceasefire ....................................................................................................................... 22 Pushing the limit ............................................................................................................ 23 2 Attacking the frontier ...................................................................................................... 23 Hannibal unleashed ........................................................................................................... 24 The fire fight .................................................................................................................. 25 Raining fire ....................................................................................................................... 27 Returning to destruction ................................................................................................. 27 Tunnel hunt ...................................................................................................................... 28 Tunnel chase ................................................................................................................. 28 Attacking tunnels ........................................................................................................... 29 The bombing of al-Tannur .................................................................................................. 31 The bombing ................................................................................................................. 31 al-Tannur: a manhunt? .................................................................................................... 34 Ground manoeuvre ............................................................................................................. 34 Remote sensing ............................................................................................................. 34 Mass destruction ............................................................................................................ 35 Fleeing the bombardment ................................................................................................... 38 Escaping through fire ...................................................................................................... 38 Attacks on Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital............................................................................. 39 Attacking the hospital ..................................................................................................... 39 Evacuating the hospital ................................................................................................... 40 Death certificate ................................................................................................................ 41 Destruction continues ........................................................................................................ 42 Shift in proportionality ....................................................................................................... 43 Cases .................................................................................................................................. 45 Bin Hammad family ........................................................................................................... 45 3 Lafi family ........................................................................................................................ 46 Qishta family ..................................................................................................................... 47 Al-Saba family ................................................................................................................... 48 Abu Mohsen family ............................................................................................................ 49 Abu Duba family ................................................................................................................ 50 Al-Gharib family ................................................................................................................ 52 Arafat family ..................................................................................................................... 53 Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital ............................................................................................ 54 Ambulance in Musabbeh, eastern Rafah .............................................................................. 56 Abdel-Wahhab family ......................................................................................................... 58 Abu Taha family ................................................................................................................ 59 Zoroub family .................................................................................................................... 60 Neireb, Ghoul, Manyarawi, Abu Ayta families........................................................................ 62 Abu Suleiman family .......................................................................................................... 64 International law ................................................................................................................... 66 International humanitarian law ............................................................................................ 66 Prohibition on direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects – the principle of distinction ..... 67 Prohibition on indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks .................................................... 68 Precautions in attack ...................................................................................................... 69 Precautions in defence ................................................................................................... 69 Collective punishment .................................................................................................... 70 Investigation .................................................................................................................. 71 International human rights law ............................................................................................ 71 International criminal law ................................................................................................... 72 4 Internal investigations, no accountability ................................................................................. 74 Israel’s positions and investigations on the hostilities ............................................................ 74 Israel’s military investigations .........................................................................................