An Israeli air strike caused a fire in a tent area for displaced people in Rafah, killing 45 people, medics said, with images of charred and dismembered children sparking an outcry from global leaders and putting ceasefire talks in jeopardy.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the overnight bombing, a precision strike targeting senior Hamas militants, appeared to have sparked a fire that quickly spread to tents and makeshift shelters, swamping a nearby field house run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. hospitals and overwhelm local areas.
“We rescued people who were in an intolerable condition,” Mohammed Absa, who rushed to the scene in the northwest region of Tel-Sultan, told The Associated Press. “We rescued children who were blown to pieces. We evacuated young and old. The fire in the camp was unreal.
The health ministry in Hamas-controlled areas said about half of the dead were women, children and the elderly. Barefoot children wandered around the smoldering wreckage on Monday as the search for the dead continued and mourning families prepared to bury their loved ones.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament that the airstrike “unfortunately went tragically wrong.” “We are investigating the incident and will reach a conclusion because that is our policy,” he said.
The United States, Israel’s staunchest ally and weapons supplier, said the images of this incident were devastating.
The attack, one of the deadliest single incidents in the eight-month war so far, came two days after the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which arbitrates between countries, ordered Israel to immediately halt operations in Rafah. More than 85 percent of the Palestinian territory’s population has sought refuge in the area as they fled fighting elsewhere, and 1 million people have been forced to move again since the start of the Israeli ground operation on 6 May. So far, Israeli ground forces have probed Rafah’s southern and eastern suburbs rather than the overcrowded city center.
Rafah and the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing are effectively blocked, and aid deliveries have been slowed.
International condemnation of Israel’s war against Hamas has grown steadily amid the death toll and humanitarian crisis in the strip, but Israeli officials have vowed to take action on the ground in Rafah, which Israel considers Hamas’s leadership and four The battalion of soldiers and Israeli hostages stationed there are necessary for a “total victory”.
Friday’s ICJ order is binding but not enforceable. After the Rafah strike, some countries called on Israel to abide by the judge’s 13-2 majority ruling.
Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas trying to secure a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages, said Rafah’s casualty would complicate protracted negotiations. Israeli daily Haaretz reported late Monday that Hamas had decided to pull out of the latest proposed talks, which its senior leadership described as a massacre.
Neighbors Egypt and Jordan, which made peace with Israel decades ago, also condemned Rafah’s attack.
Relations between Egypt and Israel, frosty at the best of times, have reached their lowest point since Operation Rafah began. The situation worsened on Monday after the Israeli military confirmed that Israeli and Egyptian soldiers exchanged fire at the Rafah crossing, killing at least one member of the Egyptian security forces. The two countries’ militaries are reviewing the incident.
France, Israel’s European ally, said it was outraged by Rafah’s attack. “These actions must stop,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a message on X. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement: “I am shocked by the news in Rafah that Israeli air strikes have killed dozens of displaced people, including children. I express this in the strongest possible terms. Condemn this behavior.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Sunday night’s bombing would have long-lasting consequences for Israel. He told Sky TG24 in an interview: “This choice by Israel is spreading hatred and rooting hatred, which will affect their children and grandchildren. I would rather make another decision.”
“The State of Israel continues to violate international law with impunity and ignores the ruling of the International Court of Justice… which ordered a halt to military operations in Rafah,” African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mohamed said.
Following criticism of the Rafah attack, the IDF said they did not expect civilian casualties and bombed areas outside the latest “evacuation zone” where Palestinians had been ordered to move, although this statement appeared to contradict previous The “safe zone” contradicts the May 22 map.
The IDF said the bombing killed Hamas’s West Bank chief of staff and another senior official responsible for deadly attacks on Israelis.
Several right-wing Israeli journalists appeared on Israeli television and social media site X to celebrate the attack, likening it to this week’s Jewish bonfire festival La B’Omer.
Commenter Naveh Dromi retweeted another user’s post that also showed the fire in Rafah, adding her own: “Happy holidays.”
The latest conflict began with an attack by Hamas on October 7 that left some 1,200 Israelis dead and another 250 taken hostage. According to the local health ministry, more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli retaliation, leaving desperate civilians without medical care, food or water and leaving much of the coastal area in ruins.
Coming a week after Israel’s global standing plummeted, Sunday’s attack drew more attention than usual among Hebrew-language media, which typically avoid daily coverage of scenes of death and destruction in Gaza.
Hostilities also broke out on Israel’s northern border on Monday. Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah said it fired rockets into Israeli territory in response to a deadly Israeli attack outside a hospital in southern Lebanon earlier in the day.
Israel has been locked in a war of attrition with Iran-backed militias since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began firing missiles at the Jewish state in aid of Hamas.
Several right-wing Israeli journalists celebrated the Rafah attack on Israeli television and on Twitter, likening it to this week’s Jewish bonfire festival La B’Omer.
Commentator Yinon Dromi retweeted another user’s post that also showed the fire in Rafah, adding her own: “Happy holidays.”
