How was the killing of nearly 300 people justified in the name of extracting four?
It was hailed as a great success in Israel. A bloody, violent ambush that 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”, media’s Maram Humaid wrote on June 8.
An Israeli raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp, ostensibly to free four Israeli captives held there, but reportedly resulted in the death of three more including one US citizen, according to the Qassam Brigades.
That is, besides the at least 274 Palestinians killed.
What happened in Nuseirat? How did Israel kill so many people? Here is a breakdown of the attack:
The attack on Nuseirat was ostensibly to free four captives taken on October 7: Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.
It began around 11am, with what witnesses say were several civilian trucks and cars entering a neighbourhood near the camp’s market.
One was loaded with furniture to appear it was moving displaced people, while another had commercial markings on its exterior. There were what appeared to be civilian vehicles in the group, as well.
At a certain point, the convoy separated into two groups of vehicles. Later, investigation revealed that each group had headed towards a location where Israeli captives were held.
The three male captives were at one location, where media believes that a witness account details how soldiers got to the house.
There, heavily armed soldiers jumped out of the vehicles and ran through a cluster of makeshift tents put up by displaced people.
The witness describes how everyone cowered in fear inside their flimsy shelters, little more than a piece of fabric between them and the armed soldiers.
At the end of their run, they arrived at a garden wall, through which they punched a hole to approach a quiet apartment building from the back.
What happened?
media has not been able to ascertain whether this was the only access point to this building, which is surrounded by a garden on at least two sides and likely faces onto a road.
Noa Argamani was held at another location, in a building facing a narrow, tree-lined street.
All reports media has gathered indicate that Israeli soldiers were shooting people on sight in buildings they entered, as well as on the streets that the soldiers moved through.
To support the operation on land, the Israeli army reportedly moved armoured vehicles in from the other side of Salah al-Din Road at the line between Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps.
At a certain point during the raid, more Israeli soldiers landed in a helicopter on Gaza’s shore, not far from the US-built pier.
Analysis would indicate that these were to provide backup, if needed and to evacuate the captives.
After the four individuals were retrieved, the convoy of disguised trucks and civilian vehicles headed out of the camp towards the sea, taking the Nuseirat road.
From there, the four were loaded onto the Israeli military helicopter and lifted off, leaving carnage behind as the bewildered people of Nuseirat tried to comprehend what had happened.
The wounded were taken to Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Balah, quickly overwhelming both medical and morgue facilities.
A widely shared video on social media shows the few remaining medics in the hospital standing in the middle of countless people lying on the floor, in agony, bleeding and screaming.
The medic in the middle of the shot is bereft. He can no longer move around because there are so many patients lying on every square inch of the tile floor, there is nowhere for him to put his feet.
It is not clear how he continued that day, how he triaged wounds, and how he made the decision of who to allocate the nearly nonexistent hospital resources to.
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