Four friends set out. They walk on a road of leveled sand where homes once stood. They walk with determination; from above they don't look scared. Occasionally they pick up the pace a bit. The road has been furrowed by tank treads. Where are they going? We shall never know. Rubble escorts them on either side of the road.
Their hands are bare, they are unarmed. Here was the Al-Sika neighborhood of Khan Yunis, now just ruins. The man on the far right is talking, gesturing broadly with his arms. What are they talking about. That, too, we shall never know.
Suddenly, from the sky, two bursts of fire in rapid succession and then a cloud of sand and smoke rises above the four. When the smoke clears, we discover the sight of the two mutilated bodies.
The drone continues to film. Like a phoenix, one of the four rises from the inferno and moves away. He tries to flee for his life, but fails. The drone refuses to leave him alone; the drone operator, his or her hand on the joystick does not relent. The man runs, and the drone camera pans up. Now the man is a tiny black dot, running in terror. No face, arms or legs, just a black dot fleeing desperately for its life.
Zoom out and immediately afterward zoom in, almost a close-up. Now you can see him clearly. Stumbling, he carries a piece of clothing or carpet in one hand. Once more, from the sky, a missile and fire and pillars of smoke. Another successful hit.
The white smoke slowly dissipates, the camera pans left. The second survivor limps and then falls to his knees on the sand, crawling and then lies down with the last of his strength. These are also his last seconds. The Israeli military does not leave wounded behind.
As he crawls, the fourth missile hits. Another mushroom cloud of smoke, through which another body can be seen. The camera pulls back, like at the end of a movie.
The four bodies lie on the sand, like four crushed insects, surrounded by black ash. What were they thinking when they went unknowingly to their deaths? What were they dreaming about that might have come the next day? What did they leave behind?
Al Jazeera broadcast the video Thursday, Israel yawned Friday. The "General Staff's Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism," the latest fashion in the field of cover-ups, is examining the incident. That will presumably be the end of it. After all, the Israel Defense Forces does not shoot unarmed people, certainly not intentionally.
"Khan Younis [sic] is an active combat zone that underwent significant civilian evacuation. IDF troops have experienced many encounters with terrorists who were disguised in civilian clothing, accessing weaponry hidden within civilian infrastructure," the IDF said on its English-language X account.
The soldiers who shot through the flickering screen in front of them wanted their mandatory military service to be "meaningful," and they got it. What could be more meaningful than killing fleeing figures with remote guided missiles?
They will carry their memories and experiences from the war with them; perhaps one day they will regret it, perhaps not. Perhaps their victims were Hamas fighters – the drone operators presumably will never know. Perhaps they were innocent civilians who went out searching for food for their hungry family. The rumblings of their stomachs could not be heard over the buzzing of the drone. Even if it is proved that the four were looking for food and were members of Gaza's imaginary Salvation Army, no one's conscience will be pricked.
After all, the incident took place beyond the dark mountains of Israeli awareness, perhaps on the India-Pakistan border. People are alive one moment and dead the next, what's the big deal? C'est la guerre.
The reader Dan Levy (no relation, and I don't know him), whom I do not know, thought of the Alan Parsons Project song "Eye In The Sky," which Ahinoam Nini, among others, has covered beautifully: "I am the eye in the sky / Looking at you / I can read your mind / I am the maker of rules / Dealing with fools / I can cheat you blind / and I don't need to see anymore." Dedicated to the one who pushed the button and killed four human beings in the ruins of Khan Yunis.