Rafah is the scene of Israeli strikes. Since Monday June 27, an image has been circulating on Instagram with a poignant slogan: All Eyes on Rafah.
It’s impossible not to have seen it. Since Monday, the image has been making the rounds social networks. A vast refugee camp in a desert plain. In this one, thousands of tents let appear “ All Eyes on Rafah“, translated as ” All eyes on Rafah“. “All Eyes on Rafah” has been gaining momentum since its first publication. This slogan is as explicit as it makes it seem. It’s a call for awareness around Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip. Originally posted in story on Instagrammany public figures wished raise awareness in their communities by sharing it. Among them, Bella Hadid, Ousman Dembélé, Lena Situation or Marcus Thuram (…) In two days, the post was relayed more than 40 million times on Instagram. It also presents almosta million of “tweets” on X. A slogan reminiscent of the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, “Je suis Charlie”.
Israeli attacks on “All Eyes on Rafah”
The image appears after 8 months of conflict to invite the world not to look away. This mirror echoes the Sunday bombing by the Israeli army of a displaced persons camp in Rafah. 45 dead were deplored. A strike which provoked strong international reactions. Furthermore, two days after this new tragedy, the IDF continues its offensive by hitting a displaced camp again. This attack adds 21 names to the list of people who died in Israel’s attacks. These events occur less than a week after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to immediately stop its military offensive in Rafah. Certainly, the image does not represent the violence that occurs on the ground but it strongly resonate the atmosphere that reigns there.
An identified sender
The day after the Israeli attack which left 45 dead and several dozen injured, the publication appeared on Instagram. In reality, his first torchbearer identifies himself under the name of “@shahv4012”. This account, which currently accumulates 30.3K subscribersrelayed many other stories, sometimes very hostile to Israel. The secondary account, identified in its description, refers to a Malaysian user which focuses on photography. On the social network, “Personal addition” allows you to share an image from your own account while allowing its initial author to know which Internet users have shared it.
The slogan of a WHO representative
If this illustration was generated by artificial intelligence, and published by @shahv4012, the slogan has a different author. “All Eyes on Rafah” comes from a commentary by Rick Peeperkorn, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) office in the occupied Palestinian territories. “All eyes are on Rafah”he announced in February. He made this statement during a press briefing to describe the situation in the region, a few days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the army for a pplan of “evacuation” of civilians from Rafah.
Social networks, land of conflicts
After the massive distribution of this image, other Internet users reacted. They also published images generated by artificial intelligence. But the proliferation of AI-created content poses a significant challenge for social networks, due to the risks of disinformation and image manipulation. Meta had even announced that from May, all content generated by artificial intelligence will be labeled with the words “Made by AI”. A statement that was not applied to these images, although they deal with a fairly controversial subject.
Furthermore, on social networks, the situation in Gaza also arouses many online campaigns. The operation “ blockout“, for example, aims to boycott personalities who choose not to take a position on this situation.
