Israel-Rafah LATEST: 'Night of horror' airstrikes kill dozens of Palestinians in Gaza
Israeli shelling and airstrikes killed at least 37 people near Rafah in southern Gaza, prompting international outrage and leading Spain, Norway, and Ireland to recognise a Palestinian state amid escalating violence.
Israeli shelling and airstrikes killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight and on Tuesday — pummelling the same area where strikes triggered a deadly fire days earlier in a camp for displaced Palestinians — according to witnesses, emergency workers and hospital officials.
The tent camp inferno has drawn widespread international outrage, including from some of Israel’s closest allies, over the military’s expanding offensive into Rafah.
And in a sign of Israel's growing isolation on the world stage, Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognised a Palestinian state on Tuesday.
The Israeli military suggested Sunday's blaze in the tent camp may have been caused by secondary explosions, possibly from Palestinian militants' weapons.
The results of Israel's initial probe into the fire were issued Tuesday, with military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari saying the cause of the fire was still under investigation but that the Israeli munitions used — targeting what the army said was a position with two senior Hamas militants — were too small to be the source.
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KEY EVENTS
US Senator brands UN court decision 'a joke'
US Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday slammed the top United Nations court, calling it “a joke” and its chief justice “a raving antisemite.”
Graham made the comments in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, on the senator’s fifth visit to Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.
Graham’s remarks came days after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel must halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah immediately.
Israel declares UNRWA 'terror group'
Israeli Knesset passed a bill in preliminary reading to declare UNRWA a terror group.
It added the bill is "not expected to progress further".
Israel and Gaza death tolls
Three soldiers have been killed in Rafah, the Israeli military said Wednesday. Israeli media reported that the soldiers were killed when a booby trap exploded Tuesday, and three other soldiers were wounded.
The military says at least 290 soldiers have been killed since the ground operation in Gaza began in October.
Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Sanchez meets with Palestinian PM
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and leading officials from several Middle Eastern countries in Madrid on Wednesday after Spain, Ireland and Norway recognised a Palestinian state.
The diplomatic move by the three western European nations on Tuesday was slammed by Israel and will have little immediate impact on its grinding war in Gaza, but it was a victory for the Palestinians and could encourage other Western powers to follow suit.
Mustafa was joined by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and the foreign ministers for Turkey and Jordan, members of the group called the Foreign Ministerial Committee of Arabic and Islamic countries for Gaza. They also met with Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.
More than 140 countries recognise a Palestinian state — more than two-thirds of the United Nations.
Ha sido un honor recibir al Comit\u00e9 Ministerial \u00c1rabe-Isl\u00e1mico sobre Gaza un d\u00eda despu\u00e9s de que Espa\u00f1a haya reconocido a Palestina como Estado. Compartimos con los pa\u00edses \u00e1rabes la voluntad y el compromiso de poner fin a la violencia y hacer realidad la soluci\u00f3n de los dos\u2026 pic.twitter.com/LeQVG3rEpE
\u2014 Pedro S\u00e1nchez (@sanchezcastejon) May 29, 2024
Gaza war to last seven more months
Israeli National Security Advisor Hanegbi predicted "the fighting in Gaza will continue for at least another seven months."
IRC condemns Israeli strikes 'horror'
Kiryn Lanning, the International Rescue Committee's (IRC) Team Lead in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), said: "These incidents reaffirm our repeated warnings that no place and nobody is safe in Gaza... The targeting of so-called safe zones, densely populated with displaced civilians, is a violation of International Humanitarian Law and completely unjustifiable. There must be accountability for these actions to ensure that such tragedies do not continue to occur."
UNRWA centre 'ransacked' by IDF
UNRWA says its health centre in Jenin Camp, West Bank was "ransacked" during IDF operation last week.
An @UNRWA health centre in Jenin camp in the \ud83d\udccd#WestBank was ransacked last week in an Israeli Security Forces\u2019 incursion. The same clinic was already badly damaged last July.@UN and health facilities are #NotATarget. Such destruction prevents access to healthcare for families. pic.twitter.com/zpL8AUttUG
\u2014 UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 29, 2024
Gaza hospitals shutting down
Most of Gaza’s hospitals are no longer functioning. Rafah’s Kuwait Hospital shut down Monday after a strike near its entrance killed two health workers.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organisation said the casualties from Sunday’s strike and fire “absolutely overwhelmed” field hospitals in the area, which were already running short on supplies to treat severe burns.
“That requires intensive care, that requires electricity, that requires high-level medical services,” Dr. Margaret Harris told reporters in Geneva. “Increasingly, we are struggling to even have the high-level skilled doctors and nurses because they’ve been displaced.”
US pier for humanitarian aid to be removed
The US-built temporary pier that has been taking humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians for less than two weeks will be removed from the coast of Gaza to be repaired after getting damaged in rough seas and weather, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Over the next two days, the pier will be pulled from the beach and sent to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, where US Central Command will repair it, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters. She said the fixes will take “at least over a week” and then the pier will need to be anchored back into the beach in Gaza.
“From when it was operational, it was working, and we just had sort of an unfortunate confluence of weather storms that made it inoperable for a bit,” Singh said. “Hopefully just a little over a week, we should be back up and running.”
Netanyahu says Rafah strikes will continue
Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead in Rafah, saying Israeli forces must enter the city to dismantle Hamas and return hostages taken on October 7.
In its investigation of Sunday’s deadly strike and fire, the Israeli military released satellite photos of what it said was a Hamas rocket launch position about 40 meters (yards) from an area of sheds that was targeted. In the photo, the alleged launcher itself did not appear to have been struck.
He said Israeli warplanes used the smallest bombs possible — two munitions with 17-kilogram (37-pound) warheads. “Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” he said.
US and other allies condemned attacks
The United States and other allies of Israel have warned against a full-fledged offensive in the city, with the Biden administration saying this would cross a “red line” and refusing to provide offensive arms for such an undertaking.
On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller gave no indication the administration sees Israel as crossing any of the red lines for Rafah, saying the offensive is still on a “far different” scale than assaults on other population centres in Gaza.
The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive last week as part of South Africa's case accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Palestinians described 'night of horror'
Abdel-Rahman Abu Ismail, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Tel al-Sultan since December, said "it was a night of horror".
He said he heard "constant sounds: of explosions overnight and into Tuesday, with fighter jets and drones flying above.
He said it reminded him of the Israeli invasion of his neighbourhood of Shijaiyah in Gaza City, where Israel launched a heavy bombing campaign before sending in ground forces in late 2023. “We saw this before,” he said.
More than one million fled Rafah
Israel's assault on Rafah, launched May 6, spurred more than 1 million people to flee the city, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees said Tuesday. Most were already displaced multiple times in the nearly eight-month war between Israel and Hamas. Families are now scattered across makeshift tent camps and other war-ravaged areas.
The strikes over the past few days have hit areas west of Rafah, where the military had not ordered civilians to evacuate. Israeli ground troops and tanks have been operating in eastern Rafah, in central parts of the city, and along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Good morning
Good morning from London. I’m Alessandra Scotto di Santolo, I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments on the Israel-Gaza war. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.
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