Gaza bombarded as UN Security Council meets
US says it sees no wrong in Israeli actions
Israel carried out fresh strikes yesterday in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where its forces are battling Hamas gunmen, after the UN Security Council met to discuss a deadly attack that sparked global outcry.
Despite mounting concern over the civilian toll of its war on Hamas, Israel has shown no sign of changing course and international efforts aimed at securing a ceasefire remain stalled.
Journalists in Rafah reported new strikes early yesterday, hours after witnesses and a Palestinian security source said Israeli tanks had penetrated the heart of the city.
“People are inside their homes because anyone who moves is being shot at by Israeli drones,” resident Abdel Khatib said.
US President Joe Biden has warned Israel against launching a major military operation in Rafah, but his administration insisted on Tuesday that Israel had not yet crossed its red lines.
“We have not seen them smash into Rafah,” said US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
A civil defence official in Hamasrun Gaza said an Israeli strike on a displacement camp west of Rafah on Tuesday killed at least 21 people, after a similar strike over the weekend sparked global outrage and prompted the emergency UN Security Council session.
Israel’s army rejected allegations that it had carried out Tuesday’s strike in a designated humanitarian area.
“The (Israel army) did not strike in the humanitarian area in AlMawasi,” the army said in a statement, referring to an area that had been designated for displaced people of Rafah to shelter.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike outside Rafah ignited an inferno in a camp, torching makeshift shelters and killing 45 people, according to Palestinian officials.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a “tragic accident”, while the army said it had targeted a Hamas compound and killed two senior members of the group.
The military later said the weapons it had used “could not” have caused the deadly camp blaze.
“Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” said Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli army.
Algeria, which called the urgent meeting, said it had presented a draft resolution to Security Council members calling for an end to Israel’s offensive in Rafah and an “immediate ceasefire”.
One million civilians have fled Rafah since Israel launched its assault on the city in early May, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Nearly eight months into the deadliest Gaza war, Israel has faced ever louder opposition, as well as cases before two Netherlands-based international courts.
The White House said on Tuesday it is not turning a “blind eye” to the plight of Palestinian civilians, but it has no plans to change its Israel policy following the deadly weekend strike in Rafah.
The Gaza war was sparked by the Oct 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on the latest Israeli official figures.
Gunmen also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,096 people in Gaza, mostly civilians.
On Tuesday, Gaza civil defence agency official Mohammad alMughayyir said 21 people were killed in an “occupation strike targeting the tents of displaced people” in west Rafah.
The Health Ministry in Gaza gave the same toll and said 64 people were wounded, 10 seriously. – AFP