Global outcry as 45 killed from Israeli strikes on Rafah 'safe zone' camp

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Chile's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemns the indiscriminate attack by the Israel Defense Forces on a civilian refugee camp in Rafah."

It, too, called on Israel to comply with international humanitarian law and the measures ordered by the ICJ.

President Gabriel Boric wrote "Criminals" on his Instagram account next to a post about the attacks.

Turkey is one of the many nations responding to an Israeli strike that Gaza officials said killed 45 people in a camp housing displaced Palestinians.

Israel's military said it had launched an investigation into the attack, which was trenchantly criticised by several nations and organisations.

"We will do everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers accountable who have nothing to do with humanity," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Bugüne kadar 36 binden fazla Filistinli kardeşimizi şehit eden soykırımcı caniler, dün de güvenli bölge ilan ettikleri Refah’ta bulunan bir mülteci kampındaki sivillerin üzerine füze ve bomba yağdırmıştır.…

— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) May 27, 2024

Global condemnation poured on Monday over an Israeli strike that Gaza officials said killed 45 people in a camp housing displaced Palestinians.

Israel's military said it had launched an investigation into the assault, which was trenchantly criticised by several nations and organisations.

"With horrific overnight air strikes killing mostly Palestinian women & children... the State of Israel continues to violate international law with impunity and in contempt of an ICJ (International Court of Justice) ruling two days ago ordering an end to its military action in Rafah," AU Commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat said on X.

"The ICJ order must be urgently enforced if global order is to prevail," he added.

With horrific overnight airstrikes killing mostly Palestinian women & children trapped in a displacement camp in #Rafah,the State of 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…

— Moussa Faki Mahamat (@AUC_MoussaFaki) May 27, 2024

The UN Security Council has convened an emergency meeting for Tuesday after a deadly Israeli strike on a displaced persons camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, diplomats told AFP.

The closed-door meeting was requested by Algeria, which is currently a non-permanent member of the council, diplomats said.

A group of Harvard graduates walked out of the Harvard commencement chanting "Free, free Palestine" after weeks of protests on campus.

Students across the United States have been protesting for Palestine, calling for their institutions to call for a ceasefire and divest from companies that fund Israel's war on Gaza.

Harvard students disrupt graduation ceremonies by staging Free Palestine protests.

“Palestine will be free.”
“Apartheid will fall.”
“Sudan. Congo. Palestine.” pic.twitter.com/DRo87Zwp8D

— Gabriela Iglesias🇺🇲 (@iglesias_gabby) May 27, 2024

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned an Israeli strike on Gaza's southern city of Rafah, saying Monday that the attack "killed scores of innocent civilians who were only seeking shelter from this deadly conflict."

"There is no safe place in Gaza. This horror must stop," Guterres added in a social media post.

I condemn Israel’s actions which killed scores of innocent civilians who were only seeking shelter from this deadly conflict.

There is no safe place in Gaza.

This horror must stop.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) May 27, 2024

Several thousand demonstrators gathered in Paris on Monday evening to protest against Israel's military offensive in Gaza, said a Reuters photographer at the scene.

The protesters gathered in the Saint Augustin area in the French capital's 8th district, near the Israeli Embassy.

Earlier on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was "outraged" over an Israeli airstrike that triggered a fire, killing 45 people in a tent camp in the Gazan city of Rafah and prompting an outcry from global leaders.

🚨#BREAKING: Several thousand demonstrators in Paris want to approach the embassy of #Israel to protest the bombings in #Rafah; Police fire tear gas at protestors.
pic.twitter.com/EogCDwfLRc

— SHORT NEWS (@BuonJose11019) May 27, 2024

(Reuters)

Canada is "horrified" by an Israeli airstrike that killed 45 people in a tent camp in the Gazan city of Rafah, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Monday, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

"Canada does not support an Israeli military operation in Rafah. This level of human suffering must come to an end," Joly said in a posting on X.

We are horrified by strikes that killed Palestinian civilians in Rafah.

Canada does not support an Israeli military operation in Rafah.

This level of human suffering must come to an end.

We demand an immediate ceasefire.

— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) May 27, 2024

(Reuters)

Israel's ambassador to Dublin warned on Monday that a crisis in bilateral ties over Ireland's plan to recognise a Palestinian state sends the wrong message about Ireland as a tech hub and is worrying Israeli investors in the Irish IT services sector.

Speaking in Jerusalem, where she has held Foreign Ministry consultations after being recalled in protest, Ambassador Dana Erlich voiced hope of returning to Ireland, though she saw its government as siding with the Palestinians against Israel.

Ireland will formalise the statehood recognition on Tuesday in conjunction with Spain and Norway. The United States and other European countries favour first reviving negotiations to resolve the conflict.

(Reuters)

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched two barrages of rockets Monday at northern Israel in response to a deadly Israeli strike outside a south Lebanon hospital earlier in the day.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded regular cross-border fire with Israel since 8 October in response to Israel's war on Gaza.

Hezbollah fighters fired two salvos of "dozens of Katyusha rockets" at northern Israel "in response to the Israeli enemy attack that targeted the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil," the group said in two subsequent statements.

The rockets targeted different areas of Israel's north, including Meron and Kiryat Shmona, the group said.

The Israeli military said shortly after sirens sounded in the country's north.

EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to call a meeting with Israel to get it to explain its actions in its Rafah offensive despite the ICJ's court ruling, the bloc's top diplomat said.

"We got the necessary unanimity to call for an association council with Israel to discuss the situation in Gaza," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

Israel has faced a wave of international condemnation over a strike that Gaza officials said killed 45 people when it set off a fire that tore through a tent city for displaced Palestinians.

Borrell called the strike "horrifying" and said "It proves that there is no safe place in Gaza".

More than 100 aid trucks managed to reach the Gaza Strip by Monday morning after an agreement to reroute aid through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, but supplies have not been distributed amid an ongoing Israeli assault, sources said.

Deliveries are badly needed as little aid has reached southern Gaza since 6 May, when Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, about 3.5 km from Kerem Shalom and the main entry point into Gaza for humanitarian and commercial supplies.

The latest arrivals would be the biggest aid delivery into southern Gaza by far since the launch of Israel's attacks in Rafah, with most days seeing no trucks crossing the border.

(Reuters)

Canada said on Monday it would grant temporary visas to 5,000 Gaza residents under a special program for Canadians' relatives living in the war-torn enclave, a preparatory move in case they can leave in the future.

That figure is an increase from the 1,000 temporary resident visas allotted under a special program for Gaza announced in December, the immigration ministry said in a statement that many people had expressed interest.

"While movement out of Gaza is impossible, the situation may change anytime. With this cap increase, we will be ready to help more people as the situation evolves," Immigration Minister Marc Miller said.

The minister has previously said leaving Gaza is extremely difficult and dependent on approval from Israel.

(Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday an air strike in the area of Rafah in southern Gaza that killed dozens of Palestinians was not intended to cause civilian casualties and would be investigated.

"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 in parliament that was interrupted by shouting from opposition lawmakers.

"We are investigating the incident and will reach conclusions, because this is our policy."

(Reuters)

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that the attack on a displacement camp in north-western Rafah which killed dozens displayed that "falsity" in the Israeli army's designated "safe zones".

Some 45 Palestinians were killed and another 250 injured in a major air strike which smashed into tents in the Tas al Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah. The attack has prompted global outcry.

Israel has claimed that attack killed two Hamas members and Israel's military prosecutor said today that it will be investigating the incident.

The #Khiam_Massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces against displaced Palestinian civilians in the southernmost City of Rafah reveals the falsity of the #Israeli occupation’s allegations of safe zones in the Gaza Strip#Gaza_under_attack#CeasefireNow#Palestine… pic.twitter.com/guyPmgw4jN

— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) May 27, 2024

The United States urged Israel on Monday to take every precaution to protect civilians after "devastating images" from a military strike in Rafah that killed dozens of Palestinians.

"Israel has a right to go after Hamas, and we understand this strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians," a National Security Council spokesperson said. "But as we’ve been clear, Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians.

"We are actively engaging the IDF and partners on the ground to assess what happened, and understand that the IDF is conducting an investigation." 

(Reuters)

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis said on Monday they launched attacks on three ships in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea and two US destroyers in the Red Sea.

Houthi militants, who describe their attacks on ships as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war in Gaza, named three of the ships as the Larego Desert and the MSC Mechela in the Indian Ocean, and the Minerva Lisa in the Red Sea

Israeli army said a barrage of "35 missiles" were launched from Lebanon into northern Israel on Monday.

The barrage reportedly hit the Mount Meron area and caused a small fire near Israeli village Safsufa.

In response, Israeli fighter jets shelled Lebanon's Khiam, Houla, and Shebaa areas with artillery following the barrage.

Governments around the world have condemned the horrifying Israeli attack on Rafah on Sunday which killed dozens of civilians in what was supposedly a "safe zone" for those displaced by the war.

Saudi Arabia denounced "the continued massacres of the Israeli occupation forces and their continued targeting of defenceless civilians in the Gaza Strip."

Jordan also condemned "the continuation of the heinous war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip," saying Israel’s actions were in "blatant defiance of the decisions of the International Court of Justice, and a grave violation of international law and international humanitarian law."

Jordan has shared ties with Israel since 1994, but ties between the two countries have also rapidly deteriorated since the start of the war.

Read more here.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza is just hours away from shutting down with fuel supplies at a critical level, the hospital said on Monday.

It said Israel's blockade of fuel supplies is threatening to stop the hospital's services "within the next four hours".

"The administration of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital warns of the serious repercussions of the occupation decision to prevent the supply of fuel to the hospital, and considers this comes within the framework of pressure on medical staff and the already dilapidated health sector".

The hospital in Deir al-Balah is one of a handful of hospitals functioning in Gaza and is treating some 1,200 patients, including 600 people on dialysis support who are dependent on electricity connection.

The hospital is urging the international community and UN agencies to pressure Israel to supply 50,000 litres of fuel needed for ten days of power.

"The failure to supply fuel to the hospital or procrastinate in doing so threatens a health and humanitarian disaster for hundreds of patients and a death sentence for these patients," the statement read.

The United Nations' Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland urged Israel on Monday to conduct a "thorough and transparent" investigation into a strike that killed at least 45 people in southern Gaza's Rafah.

"I call upon the Israeli authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into this incident, hold those responsible for any wrongdoing to account, and take immediate steps to better protect civilians", the UN envoy said in a statement.

The Israeli military said Monday it had launched a probe into an air strike in Rafah that Gaza officials say resulted in the deaths of at least 45 Palestinian civilians.

The military's Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi "directed the General Staff's Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism to investigate the strike carried out in Rafah" late Sunday, the military said in a statement.

It added that "before the strike, a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance, the deployment of precise munitions by the IAF (air force), and additional intelligence information."

Israeli media said that an Egyptian soldier was killed and others were injured as a result of an exchange of fire with the Israeli army at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said in a brief statement on its Hebrew X account: "An exchange of fire took place hours ago, and talks are being held with the Egyptian side."

Tensions have been rising after Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing earlier this month prompting Egypt to refuse to coordinate until Palestinian authorities returned.

Read more from The New Arab's Cairo correspondent here.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday he was "horrified" by deadly Israeli strikes on a camp housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah, adding that the attacks "must stop immediately".

"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," Borrell wrote on X.

Read more about the EU's position on Gaza here.

An Israeli strike targeting a motorcycle in southern Lebanon on Monday hit next to a hospital entrance, killing at least one person and wounding several civilians who were gathered outside, local health officials said.

The strike killed the motorcycle driver in the town of Bint Jbeil. It was not immediately clear who the driver was.

The Israeli army did not immediately give a statement on the strike but said it had targeted other areas of southern Lebanon in response to "terrorist launches."

Mohammed Suleiman, director of the Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil, said they had received one person killed and nine wounded in the strike, most of whom were "civilians who were in front of the hospital, where family members and people accompanying the patients usually gather."

Two of the wounded were in "highly sensitive" condition, he said. The strike also caused minor damage to the hospital, an Associated Press photographer at the scene said.

Initial findings of an Israeli investigation into a mass-casualty event in the Gazan city of Rafah are that an air strike against Hamas commanders set off a fire which killed Palestinian civilians, government spokesperson Avi Hyman said on Monday.

Palestinian health officials said on Monday that at least 45 civilians were killed in the strike on Sunday night, describing victims as "burned alive".

A British Conservative peer has described the UK's foreign policy on Palestine as "morally bankrupt" in comments following the major air strike which killed at least 45 displaced Palestinians sheltering in Rafah on Sunday.

Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi decried the UK's failure to stop Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, back the ICC or ICJ investigation and the decision to abstain at the UN Security Council votes on Palestine.

Warsi said "so many of us have publically and privately urged" the government and foreign office to act on Israel's war in Gaza.

"We failed to support the ICJ, abstained at the UNSC, undermined the ICC and continued to arm and support a regime that has brutally slaughtered innocents for months. UK foreign policy on Palestine is morally bankrupt. I am sorry we failed you," she said in a post on X.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Monday that the death toll in the more than seven months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants surpassed 36,000.

At least 36,050 people have been killed in the conflict, including 66 over the past 24 hours, the ministry said, adding that 81,026 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

Health officials have warned that the final death toll could be far higher considering the numbers of people trapped under rubble.

At least 45 Palestinians, including at least 23 women, children and elderly people, were killed in an Israeli attack on a camp for those displaced from the southern city of Rafah, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he was "outraged" over Israel's latest strikes on Rafah that killed dozens of displaced persons.

"These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians," Macron said on social network X.

Outraged by the Israeli strikes that have killed many displaced persons in Rafah.

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.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 27, 2024

Israel's chief military prosecutor said on Monday that 70 investigations were underway for potential "criminal offenses" regarding the military's offensive in Gaza.

The military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi in a speech to various senior members of the Israeli judiciary described that the war on Gaza as "the most -legal focussed war that we seen".

He said that accusations of potential criminal actions among the Israeli military have been investigated throughout the war and are reviewed by the "Military Police Criminal Investigation Division".

"At this point, I can say that so far approximately seventy MPCID investigations have been launched regarding incidents that raised suspicion of criminal offenses."

Tomer-Yerushalmi said these included allegations of mistreatment of Palestinians at the Sde Teiman detention camp and "the deaths of detainees" in custody.

Italy said on Monday Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza were no longer justifiable in one of the strongest criticisms Rome has made so far against Israel's campaign.

"There is an increasingly difficult situation, in which the Palestinian people are being squeezed without regard for the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas and this can no longer be justified," Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told SkyTG24 TV.

"We are watching the situation with despair."

On Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani met Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Rome, reiterating their support for a ceasefire and urging Hamas to release Israeli hostages.

(Reuters)

Israel's foreign ministry said on Monday it had told the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem to stop offering consular services to Palestinians from June 1 over Madrid's recognition of a Palestinian state.

The ministry said that Spain's consulate in Jerusalem is "authorised to provide consular services to residents of the consular district of Jerusalem only, and is not authorised to provide services or perform consular activity vis-a-vis residents of the Palestinian Authority".

The directive is effective from June 1, the ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a separate statement that "today, I implemented preliminary punitive measures against the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem following the Spanish government's recognition of a Palestinian state".

"We will not put up with harming Israel's sovereignty and security."

Spain is one of the European countries that has been most critical of Israel over the war in Gaza.

Last week, Spain, Ireland and Norway announced their decision to recognise the State of Palestine from Tuesday, May 28, drawing a strong rebuke from Israel.

Israel's latest strikes near Gaza's southern city of Rafah could hinder talks towards a truce and hostage release deal, mediator nation Qatar said on Monday.

The foreign ministry voiced "concern that the bombing will complicate ongoing mediation efforts and hinder reaching an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire".

An Israeli airstrike on a displacement camp in north-western Rafah killed some 40 civilians on Sunday, Palestinian authorities said. Israel claimed the strike targeted two Hamas members and said it is reviewing the incident.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Monday that the death toll from Israeli air strikes on a displaced people's camp near Rafah had risen to 40, with many bodies "charred" from fires caused by the bombings.

"The massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in the refugee tents northwest of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip has left 40 martyrs and 65 wounded," Mohammad al-Mughayyir, a senior official at the civil defence agency, told AFP.

"We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs ... We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly."

He said that rescue efforts were facing major challenges.

"There is a fuel shortage ... there are roads that have been destroyed, which hinders the movement of civil defence vehicles in these targeted areas," Mughayyir said.

"There is also a shortage of water to extinguish fires."

[Image: Getty]

Israel's top military prosecutor described as "very grave" on Monday an air strike on Rafah which according to Gaza health authorities killed dozens of Palestinian civilians, and said an after-action investigation by the armed forces continued.

"The details of the incident are still under an investigation, which we are committed to conducting to the fullest extent," Major-General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi told a conference hosted by the Israel Bar Association.

"The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) regrets any harm to non-combatants during the war."

(Reuters)

Israeli forces said its aircraft struck a Hezbollah fighter in Aainata in south Lebanon on Monday, an area it claimed from which "launches were fired" toward Israel.

Earlier on Monday, Lebanese media reported that a drone strike killed one person on a motorbike in front of Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil.

بالصور- مسيّرة إسرائيلية تستهدف دراجة نارية أمام مستشفى صلاح غندور في بنت جبيل pic.twitter.com/Qqz9oMVSmG

— NewsForLebanon (@NewsForLebanon) May 27, 2024

Egypt on Monday condemned what it called the "deliberate bombardment by Israeli forces of displaced peoples' tents" in Rafah, in strikes which Gaza's civil defence agency said killed at least 40 people.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on Israel to "implement the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning an immediate cessation of military operations" in Rafah.

Hezbollah said one person was killed and ten others injured on Monday in an Israeli strike near a hospital in the town of Bint Jbeil in south Lebanon.

It follows at least three separate Israeli strikes on Sunday which targeted individuals on motorcycles, killing a number of people and wounding several others.

One person was killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle near a UN base near Naqoura early in the morning. 

Shortly afterwards, two civilians were killed and one wounded in an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Chaab, according to state news agency NNA said. 

Later, NNA reported that another motorcycle was targeted in the southern village of Houla, killing one and wounding three others, with French-language L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper reporting "many injuries".

In response, Hezbollah announced the targeting of several northern Israeli military sites with rockets and artillery shells, including Jal al-Alam, Malkiyah, Margaliot, Shlomi, Hanita and Avivim.

Hamas has condemned the Israeli strike on a refugee camp in the Rafah area in southern Gaza, describing it as a "horrific war crime".

On its official Telegram channel, the group said on Sunday that it held the US administration and President Joe Biden "fully responsible for the massacre".

In another statement, the group called for "angry marches" in the West Bank, Jerusalem and other cities against the "continued Zionist massacres". It also called on Arab countries to sever ties with Israel.

Other Palestinian factions, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) issued statements calling for the trial of the US administration as a "partner in the war crimes committed against Palestinian civilians".

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Monday that he will ask the other 26 European Union member states to issue official backing to the International Court of Justice and take steps to ensure Israel respects its decisions.

"I am going to ask the other 26 partners to declare the backing of the International Court of Justice and its decision, and also, if Israel continues to pursue against that opinion of the Court, we would try to take the right measures to enforce that decision," he told reporters in Brussels during a joint news conference with his Irish and Norwegian counterparts. 

(Reuters)