Rafah camp blaze sparks fury, UN meet
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories — Israel again bombarded Rafah on Tuesday despite global outrage over a strike that set a crowded tent city ablaze, which Palestinian OFfiCIALS SAID KILLED 45 PEOPLE.
That assault, which Gaza Strip medics said also left hundreds of civilians with shrapnel and burn wounds, drew condemnation from world leaders and was set to be discussed at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council later in the day.
The sight of the charred carnage, blackened corpses and children being rushed to hospitals led UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to declare that “there is no safe place in Gaza. This horror must stop.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a “tragic accident” but also vowed to push on with the military campaign to destroy Hamas over its deadly October 7 attacks and bring home all the hostages.
More airstrikes and shelling rained down overnight on besieged Gaza, including Rafah’s Tal Al-Sultan area, where the displacement camp went up in flames near a facility of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA.
Palestinian statehood
More than seven months into the bloodiest-ever Gaza war, Israel has faced ever louder international opposition, as well as cases against the country and its premier before two international courts based in the Netherlands.
In a landmark political move on Tuesday, Spain, Ireland and Norway were set to formally recognize Palestinian statehood, a step so far taken by over 140 UN members but few Western governments.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on national television that “recognition of the state of Palestine is not only a matter of historic justice [but] also an essential requirement if we are all to achieve peace.”
“It is the only way to move toward the solution that we all recognize as the only possible way to achieve a peaceful future: that of a Palestinian state living side-by-side with the state of Israel in peace and security,” he added.
Israel has slammed the announced move as a “reward” for the Palestinian Islamist movement that rules Gaza, and earlier recalled its diplomatic envoys from Madrid, Dublin and Oslo.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz went further on Tuesday and launched an attack on Sanchez on X, formerly Twitter, telling him that “you are a partner to incitement to genocide of the Jewish people.”
He also drew a parallel between Spanish Minister Yolanda Diaz on the one hand and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar on the other, following her call for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea.”
‘Hell on Earth’
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’ October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally based on Israeli official figures shows.
The militants 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 36,050 people in the Strip, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
The Sunday night attack that killed dozens in the camp for displaced Palestinians was targeting two senior Hamas members, the Israeli military said.
Israel’s army said its aircraft “struck a Hamas compound” in Rafah and killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, who were the group’s senior officials in the occupied West Bank.
The strike came hours after Hamas had fired a barrage of rockets at the western Israeli city of Tel Aviv, most of which were intercepted.
The resulting civilian toll in Rafah prompted a wave of condemnation, with Palestinians and many Arab countries calling it a “massacre.”
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Monday “the images from last night are testament to how Rafah has turned into hell on Earth.”
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was “horrified” and French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged.”
A US National Security Council spokesman said Israel “must take every precaution possible to protect civilians.”