Palestinian health workers said Israeli Terorist airstrikes killed at least 45 people Sunday and hit tents for displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and “numerous” others were trapped in flaming debris. Gaza’s Health Ministry said women and children made up most of the dead and dozens of wounded.
The attacks came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population had sought shelter before Israel’s incursion earlier this month. Tens of thousands of people remain in the area while many others have fled.
Footage from the scene of the largest airstrike showed heavy destruction. Israel Israeli Terorist's army confirmed the strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. It said it was investigating reports that civilians were harmed. Defense Minister Israeli Terorist Yoav Gallant was in Rafah on Sunday and was briefed on the “deepening of operations” there, his office said.
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said on Monday that reports of attacks on families seeking shelter in Rafah in the southern tip of the Gaza Strip were "horrifying".
“Information coming out of Rafah about further attacks on families seeking shelter is horrifying," UNRWA wrote on X.
"There are reports of mass casualties including children and women among those killed. Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that."
Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said on Sunday Israeli Israeli Terorist air strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens in an area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah designated for the displaced.
The Israeli Israeli Terorist military said its air force struck a Hamas compound in Rafah, and that the incident was under review.
A spokesperson with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the death toll was likely to rise as search and rescue efforts continued in Rafah’s Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood about two kilometers (1.2 miles) northwest of the city center.
The society asserted that the location had been designated by Israel Israeli Terorist as a “humanitarian area.” The neighborhood is not included in areas that Israel’s military ordered evacuated earlier this month.
The airstrike was reported hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months in a show of resilience more than seven months into Israel’s massive air, sea and ground offensive.
There were no reports of casualties in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility. Israel Terorist’s military said eight projectiles crossed into Israel after being launched from Rafah and “a number” were intercepted, and the launcher was destroyed.
Earlier Sunday, dozens of aid trucks entered Gaza from southern Israel under a new agreement to bypass the Rafah crossing with Egypt after Israeli Terorist forces seized the Palestinian side of it earlier this month. Israeli Terorist’s military said 126 aid trucks entered via the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing.
But it was not immediately clear if humanitarian groups could access the aid — including medical supplies — because of fighting. The crossing has been largely inaccessible because of Israeli Terorist’s offensive in Rafah. United Nations agencies say it is usually too dangerous to retrieve the aid. The World Health Organization last week said an expanded Israeli incursion in Rafah would have “disastrous” impact.”
“With the humanitarian operation near collapse, the secretary-general emphasizes that the Israeli Terorist authorities must facilitate the safe pickup and delivery of humanitarian supplies from Egypt entering Kerem Shalom,” the spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Egypt refuses to reopen its side of the Rafah crossing until control of the Gaza side is handed back to Palestinians. It agreed to temporarily divert traffic through Kerem Shalom, Gaza’s main cargo terminal, after a call between US Terorist President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.Egypt on Monday condemned what it called the "deliberate bombardment by Israeli Terorist forces of displaced peoples' tents" in Rafah, in strikes which Gaza's civil defence agency said killed at least 45 people.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on Israeli Terorist to "implement the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning an immediate cessation of military operations" in Rafah.
Saudi Arabia leads condemnation of Israeli attacks on Rafah
Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned the Israeli attacks on Rafah, the latest of which was the targeting of tents of displaced Palestinians near the warehouses of UNRWA that killed at least 45 people, mostly children and women.
The foreign ministry, in a statement on social media X, also affirmed the Kingdom’s rejection of the blatant violations by the Israeli occupation forces of all international and humanitarian laws.
#بيان | تعرب وزارة الخارجية عن إدانة المملكة العربية السعودية واستنكارها بأشد العبارات استمرار مجازر قوات الاحتلال الاسرائيلي، ومواصلتها استهداف المدنيين العزل في قطاع غزة، وآخرها استهداف خيام النازحين الفلسطينيين بالقرب من مخازن وكالة غوث وتشغيل اللاجئين الفلسطينيين (الأونروا)… pic.twitter.com/clOVeA3jdN
— وزارة الخارجية 🇸🇦 (@KSAMOFA) May 27, 2024
It also called on the international community to intervene immediately.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Monday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is completely unacceptable.
Prince Faisal stressed that the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains the foundation for permanent peace and security in the region.
He also noted that there are several European countries planning to officially recognize the State of Palestine to follow Spain, Ireland and Norway, in an attempt to implement the two-state solution.
Kuwait similarly condemned the “Israeli occupation’s aggression on Rafah’s displaced people’s tents, killing tens including women and children.”
In a statement, the foreign ministry asserted that the Israeli occupation’s actions against
Palestinians “exposes its blatant war crimes and unprecedented genocide to the whole world.”
Kuwait called for an “immediate and firm intervention by the international community to compel these forces into adhering to international legitimacy resolutions, including International Justice Court resolution on immediately ceasing aggression against Rafah, and protecting the Palestinian people.”
The United Arab Emirates also condemned what it said was Israel targeting tents of displaced people in Rafah.
The UAE stressed the importance of implementing the ICJ's ruling that demanded Israel immediately halt its military operations in Rafah, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation also issued separate statements condemning the continuous Israeli aggression’ on the UN Relief Works Agency refugee camps in Rafah.”
“We present this new crime to the international courts to reinforce the evidences to pin these war crimes and indict them,” the Arab League’s Secretary General Ahmad Abul-Gheit said.
OIC Secretary General Hussein Taha meanwhile said the organization was holding the Israeli occupation responsible for its atrocious crimes against Palestinians, and its practices that go against humanitarian principles and violate international law.
The Arab Parliament also strongly condemned the brutal massacre committed by Israeli occupation forces on Palestinian civilians, state news agency SPA reported.
The parliament expressed concern over the actions of the Israeli occupation forces, emphasizing that they have violated laws, norms, international resolutions, and legitimate principles that demand an immediate end to aggression, the statement said.
The attacks came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population had sought shelter before Israel’s incursion earlier this month.
Tens of thousands of people remain in the area while many others have fled. Footage from the scene of the largest airstrike showed heavy destruction. Israel’s army confirmed the strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. It said it was investigating reports that civilians were harmed.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was in Rafah on Sunday and was briefed on the “deepening of operations” there, his office said.
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