On May 26, Israeli air forces launched an airstrike that killed at least 45 people in a tented area in the Gazan city of Rafah, sparking outrage across the world as it came despite an order by the United Nations’ top court asking Israel to “immediately halt” its military offensive. The phrase ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ has now flooded social media. On Instagram alone, an AI-generated image depicting the situation in Rafah has been shared over 33 million times. The image shows tents in a camp forming the words ‘All Eyes on Rafah’, referring to an area in the southern part of Gaza filled with refugee tent camps. Several celebrities, including actors Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Varun Dhawan and Vijay Verma, singer Perrie Edwards and cricketer Travis Head, have shared Instagram stories and posts on X with the phrase ‘All Eyes on Rafah’, condemning Israel’s bombing of the designated safe zone in Rafah. Freedom is a human right. All lives are equal!#AllEyesOnRafah pic.twitter.com/G4ucJyM8aA — Travis Head 🇦🇺 (@ImTravisHead) May 28, 2024 Ritika Sajdeh, wife of cricketer Rohit Sharma, initially posted an ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ post to express solidarity with Palestine. However, she later deleted it after being trolled on X. Some accused her of not addressing Indian issues, while others joked about her alleged ignorance of Rafah’s location. According to CNBC, the story has now been deleted. The phrase ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ comes from a comment made by Dr Rick Peeperkorn, director of WHO’s Office of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), in February 2024. As tensions mounted in Rafah and more than 1.5 million refugees moved into the city, Peeperkorn warned it would be an “unfathomable catastrophe” if an Israeli attack occurred there. During a WHO press briefing from Rafah, he stated, “All Eyes are on Rafah.” In the past 3 weeks around 1 million people have fled #Rafah This happened with nowhere safe to go & amidst bombardments, lack of food & water, piles of waste & unsuitable living conditions Day after day, providing assistance & protection becomes nearly impossible#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/CyVE0angws — UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 28, 2024 #Gaza has become hell on earth. Families continue to seek refuge, trying to escape war, but there is no such thing as a safe place in the Gaza Strip. No one is safe: not civilians, not aid workers, no one has been spared. We need a #CeasefireNow. pic.twitter.com/ZbaEmBBjjb — UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 27, 2024 According to various reports, Israel has been conducting military operations in Rafah for the past two weeks, asserting that entering Rafah and launching an attack was necessary to fulfil its mission of defeating Hamas. The hashtag #AllEyesOnRafah has garnered over 195,000 posts and millions of views on TikTok. It trended on Instagram on Tuesday, accumulating nearly 100,000 posts.
