Israel faced widespread international condemnation on Monday after an Israeli air strike killed dozens of Palestinians in a camp for displaced civilians in Rafah.
Palestinian health officials said at least 45 people had been killed and more than 200 injured, after fires and explosions triggered by the strike ripped through the crowded tent city in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, which housed people who had fled fighting elsewhere in the besieged enclave.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a “tragic accident” and the country’s military prosecutor ordered an investigation into the strike, adding that Israel regretted “any harm to uninvolved civilians”.
Meanwhile, Egypt said one of its border guards had been killed at the Rafah crossing with Gaza, after reports of an exchange of fire between Egyptian and Israeli forces.
Israel confirmed a “shooting incident” had taken place on the Egyptian border, adding it was “under review”.
Earlier, the Israeli military said its air strike had targeted a “Hamas compound” in the Rafah area and that two senior militants had been killed.
However, the deaths — which came just two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “immediately halt” its offensive in the southern Gaza city — sparked a wave of international criticism.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged by the Israeli strikes that have killed many displaced persons in Rafah”.
“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,” he wrote on X.
Italy’s defence minister Guido Crosetto said “the Palestinian people are being squeezed without regard for the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas”. “This can no longer be justified,” he added.
A spokesperson for the US National Security Council said “devastating images” following the Israeli strike in Rafah were “heartbreaking”.
They added Israel had the right to “go after Hamas”, but “must take every precaution possible to protect civilians”.
Arab nations, including Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, condemned the Israeli strike. Qatar warned it could hinder attempts to broker a deal for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Egypt accused Israel of “targeting unarmed civilians”, describing the strike as a “blatant breach” of international humanitarian law.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said there were “reports of mass causalities including children and women among those killed” in the “horrifying” incident.
“Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that,” it added.
Meanwhile, European diplomats demanded Israel comply with the ICJ’s order.
“I condemn this [attack] in the strongest terms. It proves that there is no safe place in Gaza,” EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers where the attack on the camp was discussed.
Borrell said ministers were “horrified” by Israel’s reaction to the ICJ ruling, adding “we have seen an increase of military activities, an increase in the bombing, and an increase in the casualties of civilian people”.
According to Palestinian officials, Israel’s assault in Gaza has so far killed 36,000 people, displaced 1.7mn of its 2.3mn citizens and reduced most of the enclave to uninhabitable rubble.
Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack on the Jewish state, in which militants killed 1,200 people, and took 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
The UN’s top court ordered Israel on Friday to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
“Unhappily, what we have seen in the immediate hours is that Israel has continued the military action that it has been asked to stop,” Borrell said, noting Hamas has also continued to fire rockets at Israel.
Israeli officials have repeatedly insisted that an operation in Rafah is necessary to defeat Hamas.
Tzachi Hanegbi, the country’s national security adviser, claimed on Saturday that the wording of the ICJ order was not a blanket prohibition on Israeli forces operating in Rafah.
“What they are asking us, is not to commit genocide in Rafah. We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide,” he told Israel’s N12 TV.
“According to international law, we have the right to defend ourselves and the evidence is that the court is not preventing us from continuing to defend ourselves.”
The ICJ’s order capped a week of diplomatic setbacks for Israel, during which three European states said they would recognise Palestine, and the prosecutor at the separate International Criminal Court sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders.
Borrell said the work of the ICC had to be “respected” and defended the prosecutor, Karim Khan, who faced intense criticism from Israel and its allies for his decision to seek warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.
Additional reporting by Heba Saleh in Cairo and Lauren Fedor in Washington
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