An Israeli air strike on the refugee camp in Rafah on Sunday killed more than 45 civilians, according to sources in Gaza. The next day, an additional 21 were killed in an Israeli bombing of another nearby displacement camp. These victims join the more than 36,000 Palestinians—predominantly women and children—killed in the Israeli offensive that began after Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October.
And despite international warnings against an offensive in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, Israel has pushed forward in its offensive there. As a result, the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had sought refuge there have been forced to pack up and flee once again.
Read more: In Rafah, Gaza's displaced are caught between tanks and tents
But this isn't Israel's first rodeo. It has committed a long list of massacres—from Deir Yassin to Tantura, from Kafr Qasim and Bahr el-Baqar to Qana. These traumas have been indelibly etched into the collective consciousness of Palestinians and Arabs. They define Israel's image in the Arab world and have withstood the passing of time—mostly because they have never stopped.
Intimidation tactic
Israel's objective is the same as it has always been since its inception as a state in 1948: intimidation to pressure Palestinians to abandon their land. Of course, 1948 carries a much different meaning for Palestinians. They refer to it as the Nakba or catastrophe when more than 700,000 Palestinians were uprooted from their lands and forced to become refugees in neighbouring countries.
Records made public from Israeli archives rarely reference the massacres and mass killings that preceded the Nakba. Such crimes are not typically documented in official records, but rather, they are greenlit with a nod or wink to let soldiers know they have the liberty to kill civilians.
