Israel increased strikes on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, despite international condemnation 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, provoked the fury of Israel, which sees it as a “prize” awarded to Hamas in the midst of 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 UN Security Council 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 occupied tents. by Palestinians in a displaced persons camp.
AFP correspondents in Rafah and witnesses reported Tuesday airstrikes and artillery fire in the center and west of this city bordering the Egyptian border, at the southern end of the besieged territory, where the Israeli soldiers 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 bombings and shootings in several neighborhoods of Gaza City, in the north of the territory, where a strike on a house left three people dead and several injured.
Emergency meeting
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regretted “a tragic accident” after Sunday’s 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 “distraught” and called on its Israeli ally to “take every precaution to protect civilians”. China on Tuesday expressed its “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 Israel’s actions which have 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.
“Calling it a ‘mistake’ means nothing to those who were killed, those who are grieving and those trying to save lives,” added the 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.
The Palestinian Civil Defense reported numerous “charred” bodies in the fire which ravaged the Barkasat displaced persons camp, managed by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
“We saw charred, dismembered bodies […] cases of amputations, injured children, women and the elderly,” testified Mohammed al-Mughayyir, a Civil Defense official.
“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 site in danger. fire, 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 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 flee, many of them displaced people who had tried to find refuge in Rafah.
The war was triggered by an attack carried out on October 7 on Israeli soil by Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count carried out in from 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 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”.