Qatar calls the attack that killed at least 40 Palestinians a “serious violation of international law” and the UN special rapporteur calls for sanctions against Israel.
Several countries and world organizations have condemned the Israeli airstrike on tents housing displaced people in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, which killed at least 40 Palestinians, including many children.
The Palestinian presidency on Monday accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, joining a chorus of global condemnation following the attack.
“The perpetration of this heinous massacre by the Israeli occupying forces constitutes a challenge to all resolutions of international legitimacy,” the Palestinian presidency said in a statement, accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting” the tents of displaced people.
In a statement on X, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said the Rafah images are further proof that Gaza is “hell on earth.”
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called the attack a “massacre,” holding the United States responsible for helping Israel with weapons and money.
Israel’s top military prosecutor called the attack “very serious” and said an investigation would be carried out. “The details of the incident are still under investigation, which we are committed to conducting to the fullest extent,” Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi told a news conference, adding that the army Israeli “regrets any harm caused to non-combatants during the incident.” war”.
Palestinian witnesses and Tel Aviv Tribune’s fact-checking agency Sanad said the camp housing civilians in the Tal as-Sultan area of Rafah was deliberately targeted.
The Wafa news agency, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said the dead included women and children, many of whom were “burned alive” in their tents.
One of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah said “the tents were melting and people’s bodies were also melting” after the attack.
Here are some reactions from governments and other officials around the world:
“Deliberate bombing”
- Qatar condemned the Rafah attack as a serious violation of international law that could worsen the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip. He said the attack could hamper mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. Qatar, alongside the United States and Egypt, has been engaged in talks for months aimed at securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
- Egypt condemned the “deliberate bombing”. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry called on Israel to “implement the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding an immediate cessation of military operations” in Rafah.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would do “everything possible” to hold “barbaric” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to account for the deadly strikes. “We will do everything possible to hold accountable these barbarians and murderers who have nothing to do with humanity,” he said.
- Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the bombing of Rafah was “another day in which innocent Palestinian civilians were killed.” He said the severity of the attack “is even greater” because it comes after the ICJ order directing Israel to suspend its operations in Rafah and the rest of Gaza.
- Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin described the attack as “barbaric”. “You can’t bomb an area like that without shocking consequences in terms of children and innocent civilians. We urge Israel to stop, and stop now, the military operation in Rafah. »
- Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the attacks were a “substantial violation of the ruling of the world’s highest court.” He added: “We have received a mandatory order from the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to end its attack in Rafah. It is mandatory. It’s restrictive.
- European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel must respect the ICJ ruling to end its Rafah offensive, as EU foreign ministers met their counterparts Arabs in Brussels hours after Israel’s deadly attack on Rafah.
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Ahead of the EU ministers’ meeting on Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said: “International humanitarian law applies to everyone, including Israel’s conduct of the war. »
- Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the British Labor Party, called the Israeli bombing of the Rafah camp a “monstrous failure of humanity”. In an article on X, he said: “Palestinian children should wake up excited about going to school and playing with their friends. Instead, for those murdered in Rafah, their final moments on this earth were filled with unimaginable fear as bombs fell on their tents.
“Children dismembered, burned alive”
- Humza Yousaf, former First Minister of Scotland, posted on X: “Days after the ICJ ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, the Israeli government is bombing displaced people living in tents. Innocent men, women and children dismembered and burned alive. Witness the images and ask yourself: are you on the right side of history?
- In one of Italy’s harshest criticisms so far, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Israeli attacks were no longer justifiable. “There is an increasingly difficult situation in which the Palestinian people are being squeezed without regard for the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas and this can no longer be justified.” , did he declare. “We look at the situation with despair. »
- Jagmeet Singh, Canadian lawmaker and leader of the New Democratic Party, posted on X: “The world is failing the people of Gaza. Canada is failing the people of Gaza.
- Democratic U.S. House Representative Ro Khanna urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “immediately stop” the assault on Rafah. “The horrific loss of innocent lives today following the bombing of a refugee camp underscores the moral urgency to stop the Rafah campaign,” he said.
- Aida Touma-Sliman, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and member of the Israeli Knesset, denounced the Netanyahu government for its “madness and vindictiveness.” Writing on »
- Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory, described the Israeli attack on the Rafah tent camp as “unacceptable”. In an article on as well as participation in international forums. »
“Monstrous atrocity”
- Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to housing, has called for action against Israel following its latest attack. Writing on X, he said: “Attacking women and children as they retreat to their shelters in Rafah is a monstrous atrocity. We need concerted global action to stop Israel’s actions now. »
- Chris Gunness, a former UNRWA spokesperson, said the three judges in the pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) “are as horrified as the rest of the world” by the Israeli attack on Rafah. “There are no exceptions to the Genocide Convention. There is no excuse. This is the crime of crimes,” he said.
- In a press release on X, the Médecins sans frontières (MSF) association said it was “horrified” by this attack, which “shows once again that nowhere is safe”. He added: “We continue to call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza. »
- Humanitarian group ActionAid says it is “outraged and heartbroken” by the “inhumane and barbaric” attack on the Rafah camp. “The images of burned bodies from our partners are a scar on the face of humanity and the global community, which so far has failed to protect the people of Gaza,” he said, adding that One of his colleagues narrowly escaped after leaving Gaza. at the shelter just a day before the attack.
- Triestino Mariniello, a lawyer at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCGR), said the attack on a designated safe zone shows that Israel still ignores the ICJ. “These horrific images arriving from Rafah show that the Israeli authorities are completely ignoring the provisional and restrictive measures issued by the International Court of Justice. »
- Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the US think tank DAWN, asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken in her article on fails to protect civilians” in Rafah? »
- Dalal Mawad, an award-winning Lebanese journalist, also spoke out, writing on from Lebanon. I never got over this vision. Last night the same crime was committed again. Impunity means that history will always repeat itself.
- The African Union Commission, led by Moussa Mahamat Faki, said the ICJ order must be “implemented urgently if the world order is to prevail.” He wrote in an ICJ decision handed down two days ago ordering the end of its activities. military action in Rafah.
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French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged”. “These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” he said on X.
- Saudi Arabia said it “condemns in the strongest terms the continued massacres” carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza. He “affirmed his categorical rejection of the flagrant and continued violations by the Israeli occupying forces of all international and humanitarian resolutions, laws and standards.”
- The United Arab Emirates also “denounced ongoing Israeli violations in the Gaza Strip” and called for an immediate ceasefire.