Israel faces global outcry over deadly strike on Rafah camp
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024.
EYAD BABA/AFP
Israel faced a wave of international condemnation Monday over a strike that Gaza officials said killed 45 people when it set off a fire that ripped through a tent city for displaced Palestinians.
The UN called on Israel to conduct a “thorough and transparent” investigation into the Rafah strike, as the Israeli military said it was launching a probe into civilian deaths, AFP reported.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X that “these operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate cease-fire.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was “horrified by news coming out of Rafah on Israeli strikes killing dozens of displaced persons, including small children. I condemn this in the strongest terms”.
Israel launched the attack on Sunday evening, hours after Hamas had unleashed a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv and nearby areas which sent Israelis running for bomb shelters even though most were intercepted by air defenses.
Israel’s army claimed its aircraft “struck a Hamas compound in Rafah” and killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for the resistance group in the occupied West Bank.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said the strike set off a fire that tore through a displacement center in northwestern Rafah near a facility of the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA.
“We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs ... We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly,” said agency official Mohammad al-Mughayyir.
Footage from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society showed chaotic night-time scenes of paramedics racing to the fiery attack site and evacuating the wounded, including children.
The ICRC said one of its field hospitals was receiving an “influx of casualties seeking care for injuries and burns” and that its teams were “doing their best to save lives”.
Mughayyir said the rescue efforts were hampered by war damage and the impacts of Israel’s siege.
Across the region, the Israeli attack sparked strong protests from mediators Egypt and Qatar as well as from Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Egypt deplored the “targeting of defenseless civilians” and labelled it part of “a systematic policy aimed at widening the scope of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip to make it uninhabitable”.
Jordan accused Israel of “ongoing war crimes” and Saudi Arabia condemned “in the strongest terms the continued massacres committed by Israeli occupation forces”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “we will do everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers accountable”.
Qatar condemned the Israeli bombing as a “dangerous violation of international law” and voiced “concern that the bombing will complicate ongoing mediation efforts and hinder reaching an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire”.
The African Union chair Moussa Faki Mahamat also condemned the attack on X saying: “Israel continues to violate international law with impunity and in contempt of an ICJ ruling two days ago ordering an end to its military action in Rafah.”
“The ICJ order must be urgently enforced if global order is to prevail,” he added.
In a case brought by South Africa alleging that the Israeli military operation amounts to “genocide”, the ICJ on Friday ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive, and demanded the release of hostages and the “unhindered provision” of humanitarian aid into Gaza.