Palestinian health and civil emergency services officials said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians and injured dozens more in a designated displacement area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound in Rafah and that the attack was carried out using “precision munitions and based on precise intelligence”. Hamas’s West Bank chief of staff and another senior official behind the deadly attacks on Israelis have been removed from their posts, reports said.
“The IDF is aware of reports that several civilians were injured in the area as a result of attacks and fires. The incident is under review.”
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli attack on a camp for internally displaced persons in Rafah on May 27, 2024, as fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group continues. An Israeli attack on a displacement center near the southern city of Rafah on May 26 killed dozens of people, the Palestinian Authority and militant group Hamas said, while the Israeli army said the attack targeted Hamas militants. . (Photo by Eyad BABA/AFP) (Photo by EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images)
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Ashraf Al-Qidra, a health ministry spokesman in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said the attack killed 35 people and injured dozens more, mostly women and children.
The attack in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood west of Rafah came as thousands of people fled the eastern part of the city where they were taking shelter two weeks ago when Israeli forces launched a ground offensive in the area.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah was receiving a large number of casualties and that other hospitals were also receiving large numbers of patients.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, described the attack in Rafah as a “massacre” and held the United States accountable for providing arms and financial aid to Israel.
“The airstrikes burned the tents, the tents are melting and people’s bodies are melting,” said a resident who arrived at the Kuwait hospital in Rafah.
Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military said it had found eight bombs crossing the Rafah area at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, where Israel has continued operations despite a U.N. Supreme Court ruling on Friday ordering Israel to halt attacks on the city.
Some missiles were allegedly intercepted. There have been no reports of casualties.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a war cabinet meeting late Sunday to discuss the continuation of operations in Rafah. Israel argued that the UN court’s ruling provided scope for military action on the ground.
Hamas’ Qassam Brigades issued a statement on its Telegram channel saying the rockets were fired in response to “the Zionist massacre of civilians.”
Rafah is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tel Aviv.
Israel says it hopes to root out Hamas militants holed up in Rafah and rescue hostages held in the area, but its attacks have exacerbated the plight of civilians and prompted an international outcry.
As fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group continues on May 27, 2024, Palestinians mourn the bodies of relatives killed after an Israeli attack on a camp for internally displaced persons in Rafah. An Israeli attack on a displacement center near the southern city of Rafah on May 26 killed dozens of people, the Palestinian Authority and militant group Hamas said, while the Israeli army said the attack targeted Hamas militants. . (Photo by Eyad BABA/AFP) (Photo by EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images)
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An Israeli attack killed at least five Palestinians in Rafah on Sunday, according to local health services. The Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that the deceased were civilians.
Residents said Israeli tanks have been detected on the edge of Rafah, near the crossing from Gaza into Egypt, and have entered some areas to its east, but have not yet entered the city since the operation began in the city earlier this year. moon.
Israel’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said the rocket launch from Rafah “proves that (the Israel Defense Forces) must operate everywhere where Hamas is still active”.
Defense Minister Yoav Galant held an operational review in Rafah, where his office said in a statement that he heard about “the actions of troops on the ground and underground, as well as the deepening of operations in other areas to Briefing on “Disbanding the Hamas Camp”. .
Hardline Public Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is not a member of Israel’s war cabinet, urged the army to crack down harder on Rafah. “Rafa goes all out,” he posted on X.
Gaza’s health ministry says nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.
Fighting also continues in the Jabaliya district of northern Gaza, the scene of fierce fighting early in the war. The military said a weapons storage site containing dozens of rocket parts and weapons was discovered in a school during a raid.
It denied Hamas’s claim that Palestinian militants had kidnapped an Israeli soldier.
Hamas media said that Israel carried out an air strike on a house in a community near Jabaliya, killing 10 people and injuring many others.
armistice negotiations
Efforts to end the fighting and return the 120 hostages have been stymied for weeks, but there were some signs of progress this weekend after meetings between Israeli and U.S. intelligence officials and Qatar’s prime minister.
An official familiar with the matter said a decision had been made to resume talks this week based on new proposals from Egyptian and Qatari mediators and with “the active participation of the United States.”
However, a Hamas official played down the report, telling Reuters: “This is not true.”
Netanyahu’s office said his war cabinet would discuss the new proposals.
Another Hamas official, Izzat El-Reshiq, said the group had not received any information from mediators on a new date for resuming talks, as reported by Israeli media.
Resik reiterated Hamas’ demands, including: “a complete and permanent end to the aggression in the entire Gaza corridor, not just in Rafah”.
While Israel seeks the return of the hostages, Netanyahu has repeatedly said the war will not end until Hamas, which has vowed to destroy Israel, is eliminated.
Aid trucks enter Gaza
Israel faces calls for more aid to Gaza after more than seven months of war that has caused widespread destruction and starvation in the Gaza enclave.
Khalid Zayed of the Egyptian Red Crescent told Reuters that 200 aid trucks, including four fuel trucks, were expected to enter Gaza through Kerem Shalom on Sunday.
This comes after U.S. President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi reached an agreement on Friday to temporarily send aid through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, bypassing Latam’s weeks-long blockade. French border crossing.
RAFAH, EGYPT – MAY 26: Aid trucks loaded with supplies for Gaza wait near the Egypt-Palestine border, preparing to enter the Kerem Abu Salem crossing point in Rafah, Egypt, on May 26, 2024. Aid trucks have been piling up on the Egyptian side of the border since Israel seized Gaza’s Rafah crossing on May 7. Today, trucks at the Rafah crossing were rerouted to the Kerem Shalom crossing on the border between Gaza, Israel and Egypt. (Photo by Ali Mustafa/Getty Images)
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Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV shared a video on social media platform Major commercial transit station.
The Rafah crossing has been closed for nearly three weeks since Israel stepped up its offensive and took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing.
Egypt is increasingly alarmed by the prospect of large numbers of Palestinians crossing into its territory from Gaza and refuses to open one side of the Rafah crossing.
Israel said it would not restrict aid flows and opened new crossings in the north, working with the United States, which built a temporary floating dock for aid deliveries.
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