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Israel faces global condemnation over Rafah strikes that killed 45 Palestinians

Israel faced new International condemnation on Monday for strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah that local health officials said killed at least 45 Palestinians, including displaced people living in tents that were engulfed by fire:

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Certainly! Here are the key points of the story in bullet form:

  • Rafah Strikes and Casualties:
  • Israeli airstrikes on Rafah, Gaza, killed at least 45 Palestinians, including displaced people living in tents.
  • The Gaza Health Ministry reported that around half of the victims were women, children, and older adults.
  • International Condemnation:
  • Israel faced new condemnation from various countries and international bodies for the strikes.
  • France expressed outrage, with President Emmanuel Macron calling for an immediate ceasefire and respect for international law.
  • Italy’s Defense Minister warned of long-term repercussions and spreading hatred due to the bombings.
  • The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, condemned the Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian city of Rafah in Gaza on Monday, which officials said resulted in the death of 45 people in a displaced persons camp.
  • Borrell wrote on his social media account on the platform “X” (formerly known as Twitter), “The news from Palestinian Rafah regarding Israeli airstrikes that killed dozens of displaced persons, including young children, is horrifying… I condemn it in the strongest terms.”
  • He added, “There is no safe place in Gaza… These attacks must stop immediately… All parties must respect the orders of the International Court of Justice and international humanitarian law.”
  • Statements and Reactions:
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized the necessity of the offensive to destroy Hamas battalions.
  • Qatar, Egypt, and Jordan condemned the strikes, describing them as violations of humanitarian international law and war crimes.
  • Investigations and Legal Actions:
  • The Israeli military is investigating the civilian deaths, with 70 criminal investigations into suspected international law violations.
  • The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, though the order lacks enforcement power.
  • The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
  • Context and Background:
  • The ongoing conflict has resulted in over 36,000 Palestinian deaths, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
  • Hamas triggered the war with an attack on October 7, killing approximately 1,200 Israelis and taking 250 hostages.
  • Around 80% of Gaza’s population has fled their homes, with severe hunger and famine reported by U.N. officials.

The Associated Press has the story:

Israel faces global condemnation over Rafah strikes that killed 45 Palestinians

Newslooks- TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) —

Israel faced new condemnation on Monday for strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah that local health officials said killed at least 45 Palestinians, including displaced people living in tents that were engulfed by fire.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel has faced surging international criticism over its war with Hamas, with even some of its closest allies, particularly the United States, expressing outrage at civilian deaths. Israel asserts that it adheres to international law even as it faces scrutiny in the world’s top courts, one of which last week demanded that it halt its offensive in Rafah.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel said it was looking into the civilian deaths, saying it struck a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. Sunday night’s attack, which appeared to be one of the war’s deadliest, helped push the overall Palestinian death toll in the war above 36,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and noncombatants in its tally.

A Palestinian child wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip waits for the treatment at Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

“We pulled out people who were in an unbearable state,” said Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene in the northwestern neighborhood of Tel al-Sultan. “We pulled out children who were in pieces. We pulled out young and elderly people. The fire in the camp was unreal.”

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of relatives killed in an Israeli airstrike, at a morgue in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes Sunday killed at least 35 people sheltering in a tent camp for displaced people. Israel’s army confirmed the strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The Gaza Health Ministry said around half of the dead were women, children and older adults. On Monday, barefoot children poked at the blackened debris as searches continued.

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a press conference at Bellevue Place in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

France, a close European ally of Israel, said it was “outraged” by the violence.

“These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire,” President Emmanuel Macron posted on X.

Palestinians mourn the bodies of their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Rafah, the southernmost Gaza city on the border with Egypt, had been housing more than a million people — about half of Gaza’s population — displaced from other parts of the territory. Most have fled once again since Israel launched what it called a limited incursion there earlier this month. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps in and around the city.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel must destroy what he calls Hamas’ last remaining battalions in Rafah. The militant group on Sunday launched a barrage of rockets from the city toward heavily populated central Israel, setting off air raid sirens but causing no injuries.

FILE – From left, Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party’s spokesman Guido Crosetto and lawmakers Giorgia Meloni and Ignazio La Russa meet journalists after talks with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, at the Quirinale presidential palace, in Rome, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014. Forming a new government in Italy involves time and decades-old rituals, so although far-right leader Giorgia Meloni emerged as the clear winner in elections last month, the process of getting a new ruling coalition up and running will take time, maybe weeks. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said that bombings like the one in Rafah will have long-standing repercussions for Israel.

“Israel with this choice is spreading hatred, rooting hatred that will involve their children and grandchildren. I would have preferred another decision,″ he told SKY TG24.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, May 27, 2024. European Union foreign affairs ministers meet in Brussels Monday to discuss the situation in Ukraine and in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, condemned the Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian city of Rafah in Gaza on Monday, which officials said resulted in the death of 45 people in a displaced persons camp.

Borrell wrote on his social media account on the platform “X” (formerly known as Twitter), “The news from Palestinian Rafah regarding Israeli airstrikes that killed dozens of displaced persons, including young children, is horrifying… I condemn it in the strongest terms.”

He added, “There is no safe place in Gaza… These attacks must stop immediately… All parties must respect the orders of the International Court of Justice and international humanitarian law.”

FILE – Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani listens a question with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Doha, Qatar, Friday Oct. 13, 2023. Qatar is the go-to mediator in the Israel-Hamas war. On Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023, a Qatari jet landed in Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport with an urgent task: save the cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool, File)

Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas in attempts to secure a cease-fire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, said the strikes could “complicate” talks, Negotiations, which appear to be restarting, have faltered repeatedly over Hamas’ demand for a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, terms Israeli leaders have publicly rejected.

Sameh Shoukry, Egypt Foreign Minister and COP27 president, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Neighboring Egypt and Jordan, which made peace with Israel decades ago, also condemned the Rafah strikes. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry described the strike on Tel al-Sultan as a “new and blatant violation of the rules of humanitarian international law.” Jordan’s Foreign Ministry called it a “war crime.”

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi looks on during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman, Jordan Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)

The Israeli military’s top legal official said authorities were examining the strikes and that the military regrets the loss of civilian life. Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi said such incidents occur “in a war of such scope and intensity.”

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – A Palestinian medic moves a child killed in an Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip to the morgue of Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Speaking to an Israeli lawyers’ conference, Tomer-Yerushalmi said Israel has launched 70 criminal investigations into incidents that aroused suspicions of international law violations, including the deaths of civilians, the conditions at a detention facility holding suspected Palestinian militants and the deaths of some inmates in Israeli custody. She said incidents of “violence, property crimes and looting” were also being examined.

Palestinians pray next to the bodies of their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react next to the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel has long maintained it has an independent judiciary capable of investigating and prosecuting abuses. But rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to fully investigate violence against Palestinians and that even when soldiers are held accountable the punishment is usually light.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel has adamantly denied allegations of genocide brought against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. Last week, the court ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, a ruling that it has no power to enforce.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Separately, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, over alleged crimes linked to the war.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel says it does its best to adhere to the laws of war and says it faces an enemy that makes no such commitment, embeds itself in civilian areas and refuses to release Israeli hostages unconditionally.

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of relatives killed in an Israeli airstrike, at a morgue in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes Sunday killed at least 35 people sheltering in a tent camp for displaced people. Israel’s army confirmed the strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians mourn the bodies of their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized some 250 hostages. Hamas still holds about 100 hostages and the remains of around 30 others after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Around 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, severe hunger is widespread and U.N. officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are brought to the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

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