On May 26, Israel carried out a massacre at a tent camp in Tel al-Sultan in Rafah, Gaza. The week before the massacre, the Israeli military had distributed Arabic language leaflets instructing Palestinians to go to the “humanitarian area in Tel al-Sultan.” The leaflets ominously warned the readers, “Don’t blame us after we warned you.” Given that Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza has claimed the lives of 36,550 Palestinians, it is far from an idle threat.

Throughout the assault on Gaza, Israel has repeatedly told Palestinians to flee or be bombed — only to bomb them when they fled. And so on May 26, Israel, using American-made GBU-39 bombs, attacked displaced persons in tents and makeshift shelters. Israel’s Boeing-manufactured bombs killed forty-five, including eight children, burning some of them alive in their tents. Many of those killed had been displaced multiple times.

Survivors of the massacre detailed horrific scenes. Malak Filfel, whose children were murdered by Israel during the attack, told the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), “We were sitting safely and suddenly we find bodies thrown on the ground, blood splattered on the ground — heads cut off, hands cut off . . . We were screaming at each other.” Another survivor of the massacre told Middle East Eye, “We saw tents on fire and then had to recover dismembered limbs and dead children.” James Smith, a British emergency doctor working in Gaza, described it as the worst air strike he had witnessed. Shortly after the attack, videos of charred bodies and a decapitated child killed by Israel’s bombing circulated on social media.