All Eyes On Rafah: Why the picture has gone viral, is it real, what the phrase means and who coined it?

The picture has been appearing on millions of social media feeds in recent days. | Contributed

A picture aiming to highlight Israel’s continuing attacks on the city of Rafah, in the south of Gaza, has gone viral on social media.

Over 34 million people shared the All Eyes on Rafah image on Instagram in less than 24 hours on Tuesday, while millions have watched hundreds of thousands of TikTok posts with the #AllEyesOnRafah hashtag.

Meanwhile, the slogan has been adopted by organisations worldwide including Save the Children, Oxfam, Americans for Justice in Palestine Action, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Here’s everything you need to know.

What does the All Eyes on Rafah viral picture show?

The image depicts a refugee camp in the Palestinian southern region of Gaza which has been set up to house people displaced by the continuing war between Israel and Palestine. The tents in the camp have been arranged to spell out the slogan ‘All Eyes on Rafah’.

Is the All Eyes on Rafah picture real?

It’s seems almost certain that the picture is not real - and is instead an AI generated image. The reasons for this, according to experts, are that the shadows don’t seem to be natural and that the image looks too symmetrical to be real (a common ‘tell’ with images created by Artificial Intelligence).

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What are the origins of the slogan?

The phrase is not particularly new and seems to have been coined by Rick Peeperkorn, director of the World Health Organization's Office of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in a statement. He used the phrase back in February following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s orders to plan the evacuation of Rafah in anticipation of attacks on the area. Netanyahu claims that Rafah is a stronghold of Hamas, the group that perpetrated the October 7 attacks on Israel.

What does All Eyes on Rafah actually mean?

The phrase is a plea for people around the world to not look away from events in the city of Rafah, where around 1.5 million people have fled to from other parts of the war-torn region.

It’s hoped that the resultant pressure from individuals, groups and governments around the globe may help to deescalate the Rafah attacks.

What’s happening in Rafah at the moment?

On Sunday, May 26, an Israeli strike tageting a suspected Hamas compound killed dozens of people, including civilians, prompting Netanyahu to make a statement the day after calling the deaths a “tragic accident”. Assaults on the city seem to be continuing, with reports that another 21 people had died during a strike in west Rafah - an incident that the Israeli army have denied involvement in.

The events come following criticism from global leaders about the Rafah attacks, with American President Joe Biden saying that the USA are “not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used [for an attack on Rafah]”.