In the past 24 hours, the internet has been taken over by a seemingly AI-generated image reading ‘All Eyes on Rafah.’ The image went viral as people across the world took to social media to express support for the Palestinians in Rafah, a city located in Gaza. The Israeli airstrike carried out on Sunday killed almost 45 people who were sheltered in camps in Rafah.
The Iranian embassy in India took to X to explain the viral image, claiming, “‘All eyes on Rafah’ is a phrase that refers to the ongoing genocide in Rafah, Gaza, with over 1.4 million Palestinians seeking shelter.” The seemingly AI-generated post shows tents arranged in a formation to spell out the slogan. The post is being widely shared on social media platforms, with over 29 million shares on Instagram in 24 hours.
Bollywood celebrities including Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Priyanka Chopra, Rashmika Mandanna, Sonakshi Sinha, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Triptii Dimri, Dia Mirza, and Richa Chadha posted the image to their Instagram stories, expressing their solidarity with Palestinians.
The said image that brings attention to the killings in Rafah does not highlight the violence occurring daily.
The attack on Rafah comes despite global outrage and the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) order demanding Israel to halt the military operation in the region. More than 35,000 people, primarily women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, which began after October 7, last year. Over a million people of Gaza have been living in Rafah, the Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip, bordering Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Israel launched the airstrike on Sunday, just hours after Hamas unleashed a rain of rockets at the Tel Aviv area, most of which were intercepted.
The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has been constantly expressing the horrors of the ongoing war that continue to haunt civilians.
On May 28, the UNRWA posted, “It’s one of hundreds of attacks & strikes that we’ve seen over the past months. Palestinian families across #GazaStrip face constant fear & death, @UNRWA’s Sam Rose tells @cnn that if there is not a #Ceasefirenow – there will be more & more of these attacks killing civilians.” This follows the post, “There is no such thing as a safe place in #Gaza. Nowhere and nobody is safe. Every day that goes by, more civilians die and families are forced to live in increasingly unspeakable conditions.”
Following the attack, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the country’s strike at the camp a “tragic mistake” on Monday. Israel’s military claimed that it had launched a precise airstrike targeted at killing two senior Hamas militants. As the strike culminated in a fire, the military said it had opened an investigation into the same.
Amid the ongoing war, in a momentous move, Spain and Norway have officially recognized a Palestinian state as of May 28 in an attempt to strike peace between Israel and Palestine, subsequently resolving the conflict. Further, Ireland has also expressed that it will officially recognize the Palestinian state.