Israel-Gaza war rages on as attacks on Rafah intensify; 37 more Palestinians killed, mostly near tents
- Assaults on camps have sparked international disapproval, including from some of Israel’s closest allies; Spain, Norway, and Ireland formally recognised a Palestinian state
- Israeli military suggested Sunday’s fire may have been ignited by secondary explosions, possibly from Palestinian militants’ weapons
A man looks on as Palestinians inspect a tent camp damaged in a strike during an Israeli military operation in Rafah. Photo: ReutersIsraeli shelling and air strikes killed another 37 people, most sheltering in tents, in Rafah, southern Gaza, earlier this week. The attacks battered 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. 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. Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the cause of the fire was still under investigation but that the Israeli munitions used were too small to be the source.
The strike or the subsequent fire could also have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the camp. The blaze killed 45 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials’ count. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a “tragic mishap.”
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.
Shelling late Monday and early Tuesday hit Rafah’s western Tel al-Sultan district, killing at least 16 people, the Palestinian Civil Defense and the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Seven of the dead were in tents next to a UN facility and near the site of Sunday’s fire.
“It was a night of horror,” said Abdel-Rahman Abu Ismail, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Tel al-Sultan since December. 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.
The United States and other allies of Israel have warned against a full-fledged offensive in the city. The Biden administration has said this would cross a “red line” and refused 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. He said 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.
A proposed UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to the fighting in Rafah was being circulated by Algeria on Tuesday, with plans to potentially bring it to a vote this week. The US has vetoed multiple Gaza ceasefire resolutions.
Journalists dying in Israel-Gaza war shows need to protect them (long letters)
On Tuesday afternoon, an Israeli drone strike hit tents near a field hospital by the Mediterranean coast west of Rafah, killing at least 21 people, including 13 women, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
A witness, Ahmed Nassar, said his four cousins and some of their husbands and children were killed in the strike and a number of tents were destroyed or damaged. Most of those living there had fled from the same neighbourhood in Gaza City earlier in the war.
“They have nothing to do with anything,” he said.
Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead in Rafah, saying Israeli forces must enter the city to dismantle Hamas and return hostages taken in the October 7 attack that triggered the war.
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 Organization 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.