Photo: Eyad Baba Agence France-Presse Palestinians continue Tuesday to flee Tal Al-Sultan, in the northwest of Rafah, where the Israeli strike took place on Sunday.
France Media Agency to Rafah
Posted at 6:43 a.m.
- Middle East
Israel increased strikes on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, despite international condemnations after a deadly bombing on a displaced persons camp, at a time when three European countries formally recognize the State of Palestine.
This decision officially expected on Tuesday from Spain, Norway and Ireland has provoked the fury of Israel which sees it as a “price” awarded to Hamas in the midst of the war against the Palestinian Islamist movement, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip.
The head of Israeli diplomacy, Israel Katz, accused Spain of being “complicit in calls for the genocide of the Jewish people”.
The Security Council of the The UN must also meet urgently on Tuesday, after a strike in Rafah which left 45 dead and 249 injured on Sunday evening, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, and set fire to tents occupied by Palestinians in a camp. displaced.
AFP correspondents in Rafah and witnesses reported on Tuesday airstrikes and artillery fire in the center and west of this town bordering the Egyptian border, at the southern end of the besieged territory, where the Israeli military began a ground operation at the beginning of May.
“We didn't sleep all night because there were bombings everywhere, including artillery fire and aerial bombardments,” Faten Jouda, a 30-year-old woman living in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood in northwest Rafah, where Sunday's strike took place.
“It was scary. Everyone was still fleeing. We too are going to leave, we fear for our lives,” she added.
A woman was killed in a bombing on a building, according to a doctor at the Emirati hospital in Rafah.
An AFP correspondent also reported shelling and shooting in several neighborhoods of the northern Gaza City territory, where a strike on a house left three people dead and several injured.
Photo: Eyad Baba Agence France-Presse Sunday evening's strike in Rafah left 45 dead and 249 injured, according to the Health Ministry.
Emergency meeting
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regretted “a tragic accident” after the Sunday strike in Rafah. The army announced it was investigating the deaths of civilian victims after initially saying it had targeted two senior Hamas officials with “precise munitions”.
The United States said it was “upset” and called on its Israeli ally to “take every precaution to protect civilians.” China on Tuesday expressed “deep concern” over Israeli military operations in Rafah.
Around 10,000 people demonstrated in Paris, waving Palestinian flags and signs reading: “Stop the bombings, free Palestine.”
“I condemn the actions of Israel which killed many innocent civilians who were only seeking protection from this deadly conflict. There is no safe place in Gaza. These horrors must stop,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“Saying this is an “error” does not mean nothing for those who were killed, those who mourn and those who are trying to save lives,” added UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Tuesday afternoon at the request of Algeria, a non-permanent member of the Council. The UN has called for a “full and transparent” investigation into the bombing of Rafah.
Palestinian Civil Defense reported numerous bodies “charred” in the fire which ravaged the Barkasat displaced persons camp, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
“We saw charred bodies, dismembered […] cases of amputations, injured children, women and the elderly,” testified Mohammed al-Mughayyir, a Civil Defense official.
Also read
- By striking Rafah, Israel makes a new affront to international law
- Netanyahu regrets “a tragic accident” after the deadly strike in Rafah
- “People burned”: a night in hell at Rafah camp
- Spain, Ireland and Norway jointly recognize the Palestinian state
“Hell on Earth”
Images from the Palestinian Red Crescent, according to which the location targeted by the strike had been designated by Israel “as a humanitarian zone”, showed scenes of chaos, ambulances with sirens blaring and rescuers in the middle of the night on a burning site, evacuating the injured, including children.
These images “testify to the transformation of Rafah into hell on earth,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA.
This strike came a few hours after rocket attacks, claimed by Hamas, on the Israeli metropolis Tel-Aviv from Rafah, but also two days after a decision by the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the UN, who had ordered Israel on Friday to suspend its operations in Rafah.
According to the UN, this operation had already pushed, in nearly three weeks, some 800,000 Palestinians to the flight, for many of the displaced who had tried to find refuge in Rafah.
The war was triggered by an attack carried out on October 7 on Israeli soil by commandos of Hamas infiltrated from the Gaza Strip, leading to the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Of the 252 people taken as hostages, 121 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 37 have died according to the Israeli army.
In retaliation, Israel promised to annihilate the Hamas and launched an offensive that left at least 36,050 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
Qatar, at the center with the United States and Egypt of attempts to impose a ceasefire, warned that Israeli strikes in Rafah could “complicate mediation efforts.”