More than 44 million Instagram accounts have posted an AI-generated image with the caption “All eyes on Rafah” since Monday, following a fatal Israeli strike at a camp for Palestinian displaced people in the Gaza city.
The image alludes to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled there during Israel’s military assault against Hamas, showing unending rows of tents packed closely together across a desert landscape shaded by mountains.
Among the celebs who shared it on Instagram are French football player Ousmane Dembele, top models Bella and Gigi Hadid, who are of Palestinian origin, and actor Pedro Pascal, a Chilean-American.
The slogan “All eyes on Rafah” has also been widely shared in other publications and social networks, especially X, where the hashtag #alleyesonrafah has attracted almost one million hits, according to online monitor Visibrain.
In three days, 27.5 million posts about the bombardment on the southern Gazan city that borders Egypt and caused international outcry were posted on the platform, which was once known as Twitter.
According to the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza, 45 people were killed and 249 injured on Sunday after an Israeli strike on the camp caused a fire.
After two top Hamas members were targeted and killed by the Israeli military, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a “tragic accident” that his government was looking into.
According to an AFP calculation based on Israeli official data, Hamas’s extraordinary October 7 offensive on southern Israel resulted in the worst Gaza war, killing 1,189 persons, largely civilians.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,171 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
