Israel-Gaza war live: Aid groups ‘horrified’ by Israeli strike on camp housing displaced people in Rafah
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Aid groups say they are “horrified” by an Israeli strike on tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Rafah that has left at least 35 people dead.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said dozens of dead and injured people were brought to a trauma stabilisation supported by the group.
We are horrified by this deadly event which shows once again that nowhere is safe.
The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza earlier said the attack hit a centre run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees near Rafah, saying it was a “horrific massacre”.
Footage from the scene showed widespread destruction at the camp with a large fire overtaking the area. The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound and that the strike was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence.”
Israel’s army said it has killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for the Palestinian militant group in the occupied West Bank, reports Agence France-Presse.
It added that it was:
… aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited, several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review.
Israel’s army said Sunday at least eight rockets were fired towards central areas of the country from Rafah, with strikes targeting the commercial hub of Tel Aviv for the first time in months.
Israel’s foreign ministry said it had told the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem to stop offering consular services to Palestinians from 1 June over Madrid’s recognition of a Palestinian state.
The ministry said that Spain’s consulate in Jerusalem is “authorised to provide consular services to residents of the consular district of Jerusalem only, and is not authorised to provide services or perform consular activity vis-a-vis residents of the Palestinian Authority”.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said in a separate statement that “today, I implemented preliminary punitive measures against the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem following the Spanish government’s recognition of a Palestinian state”.
“We will not put up with harming Israel’s sovereignty and security.”
The EU members Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Malta had indicated in recent weeks that they planned to make a recognition announcement. Since 1988, 139 of 193 UN member states have recognised Palestinian statehood.
Lisa O’Carroll is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent
EU foreign ministers will meet leaders from the Middle East in Brussels today to discuss how to “revitalise the political process”, the bloc’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said.
He called on global leaders to “respect” the decision of the international criminal court last week which filed applications for warrants for the arrest of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Benjamin Netanyahu, a move that enraged the Israeli prime minister.
“The prosecutor of the court has been strongly intimidated and accused of antisemitism, as always, that everyone does something that the Netanyahu government doesn’t like,” Borrell said.
“I think that the accusation of antisemitism against the prosecutor of the international criminal court is completely not acceptable.”
Foreign ministers will meet the secretary general of the League of Arab States and leaders of Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Josep Borrell arrives to attend a foreign affairs council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels. Photograph: François Walschaerts/AFP/Getty Images
ActionAid has issued a statement in reaction to what it described as an “atrocious” attack in west Rafah.
The charity said nobody’s safety is guaranteed in Gaza and has reiterated its calls for an immediate ceasefire.
The ActionAid statement reads:
We are outraged and heartbroken by the recent attacks in West Rafah, where Israeli fighter jets launched eight missiles at makeshift shelters housing internally displaced persons (IDPs) next to Unrwa warehouses stocking vital aid.
These shelters were supposed to be safe havens for innocent civilians, yet they became targets of brutal violence. Children, women, and men are being burned alive under their tents and shelters.
The Civil Defence in Gaza estimates that around 100,000 IDPs are currently in the targeted areas. So far, 50 burned bodies have been recovered as people try to work through the raging fire. We anticipate the number of casualties to rise.
The images coming from our partners of burned bodies are a scar on the face of humanity and the global community, which so far has failed to protect the people of Gaza. One of our own ActionAid colleagues narrowly escaped this atrocity, having left the shelter just a day before the attack. But nobody’s safety is guaranteed in Gaza.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said that Israel is pushing ahead with military action in southern Gaza despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice urging the country to immediately halt its push.
Borrell said that the world court ruling must be implemented, ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers’, adding he would also work towards reaching a political decision on the launch of a dedicated EU border assistance mission for the Rafah border crossing.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulance crews transported “a large number” of people killed and injured in the Rafah strikes.
The group added that the location of the strike had been designated by Israel as a humanitarian area, adding “citizens were coerced into evacuating to it.”
A spokesperson said the death toll was likely to rise as search and rescue efforts continued in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood about 2km (1.2 miles) north-west of the city centre.
“Currently, numerous individuals remain trapped under the flames and in the tents destroyed by the bombardment.”
Aid groups say they are “horrified” by an Israeli strike on tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Rafah that has left at least 35 people dead.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said dozens of dead and injured people were brought to a trauma stabilisation supported by the group.
We are horrified by this deadly event which shows once again that nowhere is safe.
The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza earlier said the attack hit a centre run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees near Rafah, saying it was a “horrific massacre”.
Footage from the scene showed widespread destruction at the camp with a large fire overtaking the area. The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound and that the strike was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence.”
Israel’s army said it has killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for the Palestinian militant group in the occupied West Bank, reports Agence France-Presse.
It added that it was:
… aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited, several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review.
Israel’s army said Sunday at least eight rockets were fired towards central areas of the country from Rafah, with strikes targeting the commercial hub of Tel Aviv for the first time in months.
It’s 9:16am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.
Aid groups say they are “horrified” by an Israeli strike on tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Rafah that has left at least 35 people dead.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said dozens of dead and injured people were brought to a trauma stabilisation supported by the group.
The aid group said in a statement:
We are horrified by this deadly event which shows once again that nowhere is safe.
Footage from the scene showed a large fire in the area.
Israel’s army said its aircraft “struck a Hamas compound in Rafah“, killing Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for the Palestinian militant group in the occupied West Bank, reports Agence France-Presse.
It added that it was:
… aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited, several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review.
Israel’s army said on Sunday at least eight rockets were fired towards central areas of the country from Rafah, with strikes targeting the commercial hub of Tel Aviv for the first time in months.
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
Seventy organisations have called on all relevant authorities and international institutions to officially declare a famine in the Gaza Strip, where there is a rapid spread of famine, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. It said that food insecurity is increasing across the enclave because of Israel’s use of starvation as a “weapon of war” against the Palestinian people – something the organisations say is part of a genocide. The organisation said food security levels have significantly declined due to the Israeli army’s offensive in Rafah which began in early May.
Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said it launched a “big missile” attack on Tel Aviv on Sunday as the Israeli military sounded sirens in the central city warning of possible incoming rockets. In a statement on its Telegram channel, al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to what it called “Zionist massacres against civilians”. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January.
At least 35,984 Palestinian people have been killed and 80,643 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement.
Amnesty International on Monday urged the international criminal court to investigate as war crimes three recent Israeli strikes that killed 44 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children. Amnesty said three Israeli strikes – one on the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on 16 April, and two on Rafah in southern Gaza on 19 and 20 April – are “further evidence of a broader pattern of war crimes” committed by the Israeli military in Gaza, reports AFP.
