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On the 14 July 2018, in Gaza City, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, two Palestinian teenagers climbed onto the rooftop of the al-Katibah building. A short time later the pair, Luai Kahil and Amir al-Nimrah, were killed by a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft.
The missile was one of a series of four to hit the building in short order, before a series of much larger strikes arrived shortly after, substantially damaging the building and its surroundings.
Forensic Architecture (FA) was commissioned by the Israeli NGO B’Tselem to investigate the circumstances of the boys’ death.
The four strikes were part of a process known as ‘roof knocking’, whereby a series of ‘warning strikes’—characterised by the Israeli army as loud but non-lethal munitions—is intended to communicate to civilians in the area that they should evacuate the area, as further strikes are incoming.
After the attack, the Israeli army published a video of the attack. As we studied that video sequence, we noticed that the footage had been manipulated, and that the fatal ‘warning strike’ had been replaced by footage of a later strike, from a different angle.
Using open source material, and CCTV footage, we established a timeline of the incident, in order to demonstrate which of the strikes had killed Kahil and al-Nimrah, and to expose the IDF’s manipulation of its own video footage.
We also constructed a 3D model of the building in order to locate the strikes, and the site where the boys were killed. Footage captured by civilians revealed a fragmentation pattern on the roof consistent with the explosion of a munition loaded with shrapnel—specifically designed as a lethal weapon.
Update
19.12.2018
Israeli news media reports that the IDF are investigating the attack, and the deaths of Kahil and a-Nimrah.