A day after Israel ordered 1.1 million civilians to leave northern Gaza, two explosions on Friday destroyed several cars on a main road in the southern part of the enclave.
Video of the aftermath confirmed by the Financial Times showed the bodies of 12 men, women and children on Salah al-Din Street, which Israel later designated a “safe route”. One of the explosions shook an ambulance as it was trying to carry some injured people away from the scene.
Hamas blamed Israel for the attack on a civilian convoy, claiming that the attack killed more than 70 people and injured 200 others. IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricks denied the accusations, telling the Financial Times that the IDF “did not strike any locations”. “Hamas is behind all of this, exploiting the deaths of Palestinian civilians to achieve its nefarious political ends.”
Such disputes over civilian deaths are a common feature of modern warfare, particularly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To assess the conflicting claims, the Financial Times worked with conflict monitoring group Airwars and munitions experts to shed light on the nature, timing, consequences and type of explosives used.
While both sides have made assertions about the incident and death toll, the available evidence is unclear. However, analysis of the film footage rules out most explanations other than an Israeli attack.
The destruction highlighted the heightened risks to civilians as tens of thousands of people fled the north on orders from Israel during hostilities. The bodies of at least three children could be seen in multiple clips verified by the Financial Times.
According to the government, at least 1,400 Israelis were killed, including many women and children. At least 2,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombings, about half of them women under 18, according to Palestinian officials.
On Saturday, Israel told Gazans it would refrain from bombing two evacuation routes, including Saladin Street, where the blast occurred, for six hours so civilians could continue moving south.
Explosion destroyed two cars on evacuation route
The earliest footage obtained by the Financial Times, filmed on the roof of a building overlooking Saladin Street, one of the main evacuation routes from north to south, shows two cars on fire shortly after the explosion.
Lights and shadows indicate it was taken late Friday afternoon, hours after the evacuation notice was issued. Although thousands of people tried to comply with the order, there were few cars on the road.
The Financial Times verified the authenticity of this and other videos by comparing them to satellite imagery, multiple accounts on social media and statements from official sources. The precise location of the explosion was first determined by open source researchers Chris Osieck and Gabòr Friesen and has been independently verified by the Financial Times.
Subsequent footage showed at least 12 bodies on the street as cars continued to burn. Among the vehicles damaged in the blast was a flatbed truck that appeared to be carrying evacuees from north to south. The bodies of multiple civilians could still be seen on the trailer, along with their blood-stained property. It was unclear whether the truck parked about 40 meters from the car at the center of the blast was hit directly.
Another explosion rocks an ambulance
In another video, recorded through the windshield of an ambulance arriving at the scene, multiple first responders rush to help as bystanders on the street wave to attract their attention.
Multiple explosions could be heard in another mobile phone video recorded at the scene as ambulance crews treated the injured.
An explosion rocked the ambulance violently – a near-accident this time while the patient and paramedics were inside. The people filming the scene left, leaving the ambulance behind.
According to videos taken before and after, a car parked on a street corner less than 25 meters away from the abandoned ambulance showed signs of explosion – apparently the location of the nearby explosion.
The car was intact when the ambulance arrived. Soon after, it was reduced to a smoking wreckage with impact marks similar to those of other hit cars. The building wall behind the vehicle also showed signs of severe blast damage.
Attack attribution
While official statements from pro-Palestinian activists and Hamas blamed the explosions on Israeli airstrikes, it is difficult to conclusively prove whether they came from an IDF attack, a Palestinian rocket fire or even a car bomb.
Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British Army major and weapons and ammunition expert, said that although it was difficult to draw a clear conclusion, the available evidence showed that the most likely cause of the explosion was a missile attack.
He said that while it was possible that it was a car bomb, “no vehicle really looked like a car carrying the device, it looked more like an open can.”
He also ruled out the possibility of a heavy bomb designed to target the building because no crater was seen. Cobb-Smith said directed missiles, by contrast, would cause damage consistent with an explosion and “would certainly set the vehicle on fire.”
He added that the fact that most of the bodies were intact but killed by shrapnel would support that conclusion.
The Financial Times asked IDF spokesman Conricks detailed questions, including the precise location and approximate time.
During a briefing on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, he played a video of another explosion two miles south on Salah-ad-Din Street. He said the Israel Defense Forces were not responsible for the attack – which he believed was more likely to have come from a roadside improvised explosive device – but made no mention of the explosion recorded on film verified by the Financial Times.
Conricus stressed that Israel’s goal is to move Gaza’s civilians south. “Therefore, it makes no sense for the IDF to do this,” he said, referring to the explosion shown on the broadcast.
Additional reporting by John Reed in Jerusalem.Graphics by Steven Bernard
Airwars’ Joe Dyke and Nikolaj Houmann contributed to this report
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