Israeli strike on a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah killed at least 45 Palestinians and 200 others are wounded, with many severely burned, according to local health officials and Palestinian medics.
The airstrike on late Sunday led to a massive fire at the tent camp. Videos circulating on social media showed scenes of horror with fire raging in tents and Palestinians screaming and fleeing for safety, charred bodies being pulled from rubble, a man holding the headless body of a child.
More than half of the dead were women, children, and elderly people, according to Gaza health officials. The death toll was likely to rise from people with severe burns. No hospital in Rafah had the capacity to take the number of casualties, the ministry said.
The Sunday night’s attack appeared to be one of the war’s deadliest and pushed the overall Palestinian death toll in the war above 36,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
“They said it is safe,” a local Hala Siam said of the area she and her family were sheltering in. “There is no safe place in Rafah.”
The strike on Rafah came hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv for the first time in months, with sirens sounding in the city and parts of central Israel on Sunday.
Tents in flame, people severely burned
Burned bodies, including those of children, could be seen being pulled by rescuers from the wreckage. “Several civilians are still trapped inside the camp, which was attacked without warning,” a Palestinian man filming the fire said. “This was declared a safe zone.”
Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene in the neighborhood of Tel al-Sultan, said rescuers “pulled out people who were in an unbearable state.”
“We pulled out children who were in pieces. We pulled out young and elderly people. The fire in the camp was unreal,” he said.
“This massacre is the largest in the city of Rafah in months,” said Muhammad Al-Mughir,, the spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense in Rafah. He stressed that the area hit was a designated humanitarian area next to UN warehouses.
The deadliest strikes by the Israeli military came just days after the United Nations’ top court International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to “immediately halt” its military operation in Rafah, and any other action in the city, “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Netanyahu acknowledges ‘tragic mistake’ after Rafah strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that a “tragic mistake” had been made after an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah set fire to a tent camp housing displaced Palestinians and, and killed more than 40 people.
“In Rafah, we already evacuated about 1 million non-combatant residents and despite our utmost effort not to harm non-combatants, something unfortunately went tragically wrong,” he said in a speech at Israel’s parliament. “We are investigating the incident and will obtain a conclusion.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the attack was conducted based on “prior intelligence” indicating that senior officials of Hamas’ West Bank wing were present at the site. Later, IDF said it is aware of reports of civilian harm following the strike and fire and that “The circumstances of the accident are being investigated.”
Israeli attack on Rafah camp prompts international condemnation
World leaders and global organizations condemned the Israeli airstrike n Tal al-Sultan, northwest of Rafah, that targeted a camp designated as a “safe zone” and housed displaced Palestinians.
The strikes came just days after the UN top court ordered Israel to halt its offensive on the southern Gaza city where more than a million had sought refuge.
Erdogan says Turkey “will do everything” in its power to hold Israel accountable
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that his country “will do everything” in its power to hold Israeli officials accountable after Israel struck a displacement camp in Rafah.
“As Turkey, we will do everything in our power to hold these killers, who do not have a shred of humanity, accountable,” Erdogan said in a post on X. He said the strike is “a massacre which took place after the International Court of Justice’s call to halt the attacks” and called Israel a “terrorist state.”
“As Netanyahu and his murder network fail to break the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people, they are becoming increasingly backed into a corner in their own country, trying to extend their political life by spilling more blood,” he added. “But they will soon see that this doesn’t do any good.”
Israel must implement ICJ ruling, says EU foreign policy chief
Israel must abide by the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling to immediately halt its operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
“Unhappily, what we have seen in the immediate hours is that Israel continues the military action that it has been asked to stop,” Borrell said ahead of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, where EU foreign ministers are meeting with Arab leaders to discuss Gaza and the Middle East.
Last week, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan said the court was seeking arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Yoav Gallant, alongside three top Hamas leaders, including Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar.
France outraged over Rafah camp attack
France, a close European ally of Israel, said it was “outraged” by the violence. “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 ceasefire,” President Emmanuel Macron posted on X.
Massive demonstration were held in Paris to show support for Palestinian people and condemn the Israeli attacks.
Germany calls for investigation, saying images from Rafah are “unbearable”
Germany, which has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, said “the images of charred bodies, including children, from the airstrike in Rafah are unbearable.” The German Foreign Office said that “The exact circumstances must be clarified, and the investigation announced by the Israeli army must now come quickly,′ adding that ”The civilian population must finally be better protected.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to halt its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah is binding and has “to be followed.” She added that “International law, international humanitarian law, applies to everyone, including Israeli warfare.”
Ireland, Norway and Spain urge Israel to stop military operation
Ireland, Norway and Spain, the three countries that jointly recognized Palestinian state recently, urged Israel to halt its military operation.
Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin described the attack as “barbaric”. “One cannot bomb an area like that without shocking consequences in terms of innocent children and civilians. We would urge Israel to stop, to stop now, in terms of the military operation in Rafah.”
Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said the bombing of Rafah was “one more day with innocent Palestinian civilians being killed”. He said the gravity of the attack “is even larger” because it comes after the ICJ order directing Israel to halt its operation in Rafah and the rest of Gaza.
Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the attacks are a “material breach of the decision of the highest court of the world”. He added: “We’ve had a compulsory order from the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to stop its attack in Rafah. It is compulsory. It’s binding.”
Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar condemn Israeli massacre
Saudi Arabia said it “condemns in the strongest terms the continued massacres” carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza. It “affirmed its categorical rejection of the continued flagrant violations by the Israeli occupation forces of all international and humanitarian resolutions, laws, and norms”.
Qatar, which alongside the U.S. and Egypt has been engaged in months of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, condemned the Rafah attack as a grave violation of international laws that will aggravate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip and could hinder mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also “denounced the ongoing Israeli violations in the Gaza Strip”, and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Aid groups “horrified” by Israeli strike on Rafah camp
Different reports said aid groups were horrified by an Israeli strike on a displacement camp in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah that has killed 40 Palestinians.
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, called for action against Israel in the wake of its latest attack. Writing on X, he said, “Attacking women and children while they cower in their shelters in Rafah is a monstrous atrocity. We need concerted global action to stop Israel’s actions now.”
In a statement on X, charity Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) said it was “horrified” by the attack, which “shows once again that nowhere is safe.” It added: “We continue to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza.”
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said the images from Rafah are yet another testament that Gaza is “hell on earth”.
Chris Gunness, former spokesperson for UNRWA, said the three judges at the pre-trial chamber at the International Criminal Court (ICC) “are as horrified as the rest of the world” about the Israeli attack on Rafah. “There is no exception to the Genocide Convention. There are no excuses. This is the crime of crimes,” he said.
Médecins Sans Frontières said dozens of dead and injured people were brought to a trauma stabilization points supported by the group. “We are horrified by this deadly event which shows once again that nowhere is safe,” it said. The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulance crews transported “a large number” of people killed and injured in the Rafah strikes.
We are horrified by this deadly event, which shows once again that nowhere is safe. We continue to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza.
— MSF International (@MSF) May 26, 2024
ActionAid humanitarian group says it was “outraged and heartbroken” by the “inhumane, barbaric” attack on the Rafah camp. “The images coming from our partners of burned bodies are a scar on the face of humanity and the global community, which so far has failed to protect the people of Gaza,” it says, adding that one of its colleagues narrowly escaped, having left the shelter just a day before the attack.
More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over seven months of Israeli war on Gaza, which began after the Hamas-led October 7 attack killed some 1,200 Israeli and 250 others were taken hostage.