On May 16, Israeli air strikes destroyed three apartment buildings and ended the lives of several Palestinian families. A team from the American newspaper "New York Times" visited the scene, interviewed survivors and analyzed several videos, photographs and satellite images to find out what happened.
Israel says that it targeted Hamas tunnels and military infrastructure that night, and with the passage of time, it became clear that there were other new details related to the event that were proven by the New York Times, where it said that "Israel used advanced and new precision-guided bombs and missiles targeting the neighborhood in which the Ashkantona family lives, with more than 20 A strike that night, and the Israeli narrative says that the Israeli army was careful in targeting it or in the attacks it carried out at the time, but the investigation of the American newspaper proved how the army dropped some of its heaviest missile bombs, without warning to civilians and without prior warning.
The video also shows a number displayed on one of the shrapnel collected from the homes of the Al-Kolk and Abu Al-Awf family, as it proved, according to the newspaper´s team´s research, that the missile used is an American-made and heavy missile that is precisely guided through the GPS system.
And in the scant information provided by the army about its targeting of that area, Israel targeted apartments and buildings and says that it targeted tunnels under these buildings that were targeted on Al-Wahda Street, and after weeks of the attacks, and by repeating the question of the newspaper’s investigators and journalists to the Israeli side about the targets that were targeted, the army said in another and different version This time, "he targeted an underground headquarters, but they did not know its exact size or location."
Israel says that Hamas has built a military infrastructure under the residential buildings, and the Israeli army did not provide sufficient evidence that there is a command headquarters under the targeted buildings, and experts say that the scale of the attacks that took place in the place constitutes a war crime that was committed.
The video of the investigation conducted by the American newspaper shows an area in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, which the Gazans consider one of the safe neighborhoods in Gaza City , that on the night of May 16, the Israelis targeted 100 targets for Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip. According to a map prepared by the newspaper, more than twenty rockets and bombs were dropped. Along the neighborhood that consists of residential buildings, Al Wahda Street, two ministries and a medical center.
According to an interview conducted by the New York Times team with the survivor, Riyad Ashkantana, about the targeting of the building in which he lived, the Abu Al-Awf family building, he said, "Two red and yellow flames broke into the salon of the house while he and his wife were watching the news and his children were sleeping minutes before the event, and in accordance with the conversation of our residences and photos From an Israeli reconnaissance plane that filmed that scene that night, where the New York Times team made the zoom feature on the photos, followed by a snapshot, where the pictures showed the fall of two bombs from warplanes on the same house of the Abu Al-Awf family in which Riyad Shakounat lives, and after tracking them, he watches the explosion and another explosion targeting Three other buildings for the family, and the video released by the army shows that there is a belt of fire on another street in the same neighborhood next to the targeted area.
The newspaper adds, through its team, that they geolocated the published photos and videos to target the Abu Al-Awf building.
In a third account, different from the same event, according to the investigation video, Israel says that the intense bombing of the Rimal neighborhood was part of the strategy to destroy Hamas tunnels, which Israel calls "the metro."
In a press conference by Benjamin Netanyahu in front of journalists after the war, he presented a map showing the areas of Hamas’ establishment of underground tunnels and under residential neighborhoods, showing yellow circular signs placed on the map indicating, according to the Israelis, the buildings that had not been targeted by the Israeli army by the warplanes, although that The army has actually targeted it and killed 44 civilians in it, which is the area of ​​Al-Wahda Street, and other red dotted lines were placed on the same map indicating the main Al-Wahda Street, which was targeted according to what is shown in Netanyahu’s map, but what the American newspaper published in its video investigation through a photographic plane shows The targeting was of civilian homes on Al Wahda Street and not of the street itself, as the army´s version spoke, and on the lips of its spokesman and Netanyahu.
The army modified his statement when he saw the photos, saying: "The buildings collapsed because they targeted the tunnels in the main street."
The report also says that Israel did not provide evidence of the existence of a command center in that location, and Hamas denied its existence.
The report explains, "If it was true that Israel targeted the headquarters and military infrastructure of Hamas under civilian buildings, the world forced them to warn civilians before the bombing, while official officials told the New York Times that Israel did not believe that the warning was necessary because it carried out several similar raids in Gaza several times." Without collapsing buildings.
The investigation video also displays pictures of Israeli bombs and missiles and their types, and compares it to the rockets and bombs used by the army in bombing Al-Rimal neighborhood and Al-Wahda Street.
According to the newspaper, the Red Cross said that such weapons cannot be used in open areas because of the potential danger of their consequences.
The investigation eventually concluded that that night, Israeli planes dropped four of those heavy bombs within feet of those apartment buildings, although the military asserted that it used a programmed fuse program to allow the bombs to explode deep underground, destroying tunnels and reducing The damage it may cause above ground.
Pictures and other evidence show that the roof of the Abu Al-Awf family´s house has tilted toward Al-Wahda Street, which means that the targeting took place in the middle of the building and that the bomb exploded, causing the roof of the building to slope toward the street.
To watch the video of the investigation, click on the following link: Click here
