Israeli strikes kill 37 Palestinians near Gaza's Rafah as offensive expands

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli shelling and airstrikes killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside the southern Gaza town of Rafah overnight and Tuesday, hitting the same area where strikes sparked a deadly fire days earlier. a camp for displaced Palestinians – according to witnesses, rescuers and hospital officials.

Inferno tent camp sparks international outrage

The tent camp inferno has sparked widespread international outrage, including from some of Israel's closest allies, over the growing military offensive on Rafah. And a sign of Israel's growing isolation on the world stage, Spain, Norway and Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday.

The Israeli military suggested that Sunday's fire at the tent camp may have been caused by secondary explosions, possibly caused by Palestinian militant weapons. The results of Israel's initial investigation into the fire were released Tuesday, with military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari saying the cause of the fire was still under investigation, but than the munitions used – targeting what the army said was a position with two high-ranking Hamas militants. – were too small to be the source.

The ensuing strike or fire may also have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the camp. The fire killed 45 Palestinians, according to a count by Gaza health authorities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a “tragic accident.”

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The assault on Rafah caused the flight of a million people

Israel's assault on Rafah, launched on May 6, has caused more than a million people to flee the city, the United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees said Tuesday. Most had already been displaced several times during the nearly eight-month war between Israel and Hamas. Families are now scattered in makeshift tent camps and other war-ravaged areas.

The strikes in recent days have hit areas west of Rafah, the evacuation of which had not received orders from the army. Israeli ground troops and tanks operate in eastern Rafah, in the city's central neighborhoods and along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Bombings hit the Tel al-Sultan district, west of Rafah, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, 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 United Nations facility, about 200 meters from the site of the attack and fire on Sunday evening.

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“It was a night of horror,” said Abdel-Rahman Abu Ismail, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has taken refuge in Tel al-Sultan since December. He said he heard “constant sounds” of explosions overnight and into Tuesday, with fighter jets and drones flying over the area.

He said it reminded him of the Israeli invasion of his Shijaiyah neighborhood in Gaza City, where Israel launched an intensive bombing campaign before sending in ground forces in late 2023. “We've seen this before,” did he declare.

US and other allies warn of full-scale offensive

The United States and other allies of Israel have warned of a full-fledged offensive in the city, with the Biden administration saying it would cross a red line and refusing to provide offensive weapons for such an endeavor. The International Court of Justice on Friday called on Israel to end its offensive on Rafah, an order it has no power to enforce.

An Israeli drone strike hit tents near a field hospital on the Mediterranean coast west of Rafah on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 21 people, including 13 women, the Health Ministry said. Gaza.

A witness, Ahmed Nassar, said his four cousins ​​and some of their husbands and children were killed in the attack and a number of tents were destroyed or damaged. Most of those living there had fled the same area of ​​Gaza City at the start of the war.

“They have nothing to do with anything,” he said.

Netanyahu plans to move forward

Netanyahu has pledged to move forward, saying Israeli forces must enter Rafah to dismantle Hamas and return hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war.

In its investigation into Sunday's deadly strike and fire, the Israeli military released satellite photos of what it says is a Hamas rocket launch position about 40 meters from a hangar area that been targeted. In the photo, the alleged thrower himself does not appear to have been hit.

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He said Israeli military aircraft used the smallest munition possible – two munitions with 17-kilogram warheads. “Our munitions alone could not have started a fire of this magnitude,” he said.

Hagari said the fire was “a devastating incident that we did not expect” and said it started due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

Still, the strikes triggered a flight of people from areas west of Rafah. Rafah resident Sayed al-Masri said many families were heading to the crowded Muwasi neighborhood or to Khan Younis, a southern town that suffered heavy damage during months of fighting.

“The situation is getting worse” in Rafah, al-Masri said.

Medical facilities out of service in Gaza due to bombing

The Gaza Health Ministry said two medical facilities in Tel al-Sultan were out of service due to intense shelling nearby. Medical Aid for Palestinians, a charity operating across the territory, said the Tel al-Sultan medical center and Indonesian field hospital were on lockdown, with doctors, patients and displaced people trapped inside.

Most hospitals in Gaza are no longer functioning. Kuwait's Rafah hospital closed Monday after a strike near its entrance killed two health workers.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said victims of Sunday's strikes and fires had “completely overwhelmed” the region's field hospitals, which were already short of supplies to treat serious burns.

“It requires intensive care, it requires electricity, it requires high-level medical services,” Dr. Margaret Harris told reporters in Geneva. “More and more, we are having trouble getting highly qualified doctors and nurses because they have been displaced. »

History of the current conflict

The war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, killing some 1,200 civilians and kidnapping about 250. More than 100 were freed during of a one-week ceasefire in November in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. .

Israel responded to the attack with a massive air, land and sea offensive that killed at least 36,096 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its tally. About 80 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and U.N. officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

The fighting in Rafah has made it almost impossible for humanitarian groups to import and distribute aid to southern Gaza.

The Israeli military says it has allowed hundreds of trucks to enter through the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing since its operation began, but humanitarian groups say it is extremely difficult to access this aid from the Gaza side due to fights.

The UN says it has only been able to collect aid from around 170 trucks over the past three weeks through Kerem Shalom. Smaller amounts of aid are arriving through two crossings in the north and by sea via a floating jetty built in the United States, but they are far from the 600 trucks a day that aid groups say are needed.