This was hailed as a great success in Israel. A bloody and violent ambush which turned into a massacre of nearly 300 displaced people who were going about their day as best they could.
Suddenly, they found themselves “descending into the depths of hell,” wrote Tel Aviv Tribune’s Maram Humaid on June 8.
An Israeli raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp, ostensibly to free four Israeli captives held there, but reportedly resulted in the deaths of three others, including a US citizen, according to the Qassam Brigades.
Not counting the 274 Palestinians killed.
What happened in Nuseirat? How could Israel kill so many people? Here are the details of the attack:
What happened?
The Nuseirat attack was apparently aimed at freeing four captives captured on October 7: Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
It began around 11 a.m., with witnesses saying several civilian trucks and cars entering an area near the camp market.
One was loaded with furniture to make it look like it was transporting displaced people, while another had commercial markings on the exterior. There were also what appeared to be civilian vehicles in the group.
To provide air cover, Israeli forces began bombing from above, hitting the busy market area hardest, likely to sow as much panic and distress as possible, as well as inflict maximum casualties. .
Telegram channels began broadcasting information that shelling could be heard in the camp around 11:35.
At one point, the convoy split into two groups of vehicles. Later, the investigation revealed that each group had headed to a location where Israeli captives were being held.
The three captive men were in the same location, where Tel Aviv Tribune believes testimony details how the soldiers arrived at the house.
There, heavily armed soldiers jumped out of vehicles and ran through a group of makeshift tents set up by displaced people.
The witness describes how everyone cowered in fear in their flimsy shelters, with little more than a piece of cloth between them and the armed soldiers.
At the end of their run, they came to a garden wall, through which they cut a hole to approach from the back of a quiet building.
Tel Aviv Tribune could not determine whether this was the only access point to this building, which is surrounded by a garden on at least two sides and likely faces a road.
Noa Argamani was detained elsewhere, in a building overlooking a narrow, tree-lined street.
There, a truck stopped, supported by soldiers who fired on sight, killing one person at the entrance to the building. According to footage viewed by Tel Aviv Tribune, no weapons were visible near or on the person killed.
A ladder was extended from the truck to allow soldiers to climb into an apartment via the balcony.
All reports collected by Tel Aviv Tribune indicate that Israeli soldiers were shooting people on sight in the buildings they entered, as well as on the streets the soldiers were moving through.
To support the ground operation, the Israeli army reportedly moved armored vehicles from across Salah al-Din Road, to the border between the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps.
At one point during the raid, other Israeli soldiers landed by helicopter on the Gaza coast, not far from the US-built pier.
The analysis would indicate that they were to provide reinforcement, if necessary, and evacuate the captives.
Once the four individuals were recovered, the convoy made up of disguised trucks and civilian vehicles left the camp towards the sea, taking the Nuseirat road.
From there, the four were loaded onto the Israeli military helicopter and took off, leaving behind carnage as the disoriented residents of Nuseirat tried to understand what had happened.
What did the residents of Nuseirat do once this horror was over?
The injured were taken to Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Balah, quickly overwhelming the medical facilities and morgue.
A video widely shared on social media shows the few remaining doctors at the hospital standing amid countless people lying on the ground in agony, bleeding and screaming.
The doctor in the middle of the shot is helpless. He can no longer move around because there are so many patients lying on every square inch of the tiles that he has nowhere to put his feet.
It is unclear how he continued that day, how he triaged the injuries, and how he made the decision about who to allocate the almost non-existent hospital resources to.
*Allow the water to flow. جيش الاحتلال الإسرائيلي في مخيم النصير ات في ظل تدميره للقطاع الطبي في كل مناطق قطاع غزة* pic.twitter.com/HyFRmlfux2
-Tariq Jaber (@TariqJaber14041) June 8, 2024
Translation: In light of what the Israeli occupation army has done to decimate the health sector in Gaza, injured people cover the corridors of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after the massacre committed by the Israeli occupying army in the Nusierat refugee camp.
Within an hour, as staff frantically attempted to treat the overwhelming number of wounded, the hospital received an evacuation order from the Israeli army. The hospital was in an area previously designated by the Israeli army as a security zone.
But the operation, considered by the Israelis and their international allies a resounding success, not only killed many Palestinians, but also some hostages.
The Qassam Brigades posted a video on its Telegram channel on Sunday showing three unidentified corpses with their faces covered, claiming they belonged to three captives, including a US citizen, whom Israel killed during its raid.
Wait… How did the Israeli soldiers sneak in?
Israeli forces were “treacherously hiding in a humanitarian truck,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories. “This is a ‘humanitarian cover-up’ on another level,” she wrote on X. Israel has denied the accusation.
How many people were killed or injured?
At least 274 people died in Saturday’s massacre, including at least 64 children, and more than 700 were injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Among those killed by Israel, according to Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, were three Israeli captives, one of whom had American citizenship.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed Saturday that “dozens” of Palestinians had been killed in the attack, telling a press briefing that he “knew there were fewer of 100” casualties, but he “could not say” how many were civilians.
How were so many people killed to save only four?
Witnesses describe a violent ambush, with indiscriminate shooting and air raids.
Anas Alayyan, a resident of the camp, said Israeli soldiers carried out mass executions in the streets.
“I went to the streets and found bodies everywhere,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.