Outrage As Israeli Airstrike Kills Dozens In Rafah Tent Camp

• Global condemnation trails action

At least 45 people, including many women and children, have been reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike prompting an international outcry

Reports said the air assault caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah killing many people and leaving others injured.

According to medics at the incident scene, there were images of charred and dismembered children which has prompted outcry from global leaders and put ceasefire talks in jeopardy.

Bombing overnight that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said targeted senior Hamas militants in a precision strike appears to have ignited fires that spread quickly through tents and makeshift accommodation, overwhelming a nearby field hospital operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and overstretched local hospitals.

“We pulled out people who were in an unbearable state,” Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene in the north-western neighbourhood of Tel al-Sultan, told the Associated Press.

He further said; “We pulled out children who were in pieces. We pulled out young and elderly people. The fire in the camp was unreal.”

Also, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled area said about half of the dead were women, children, and older adults. Barefoot children wandered around the smoking wreckage on Monday as searches for the dead continued and mourning families prepared to bury their loved ones.

Reacting to the unfortunate development, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in parliament that “something unfortunately went tragically wrong” with the airstrike, adding; “We are investigating the incident and will reach conclusions because this is our policy”.

Meanwhile, the United States (US), Israel’s staunchest ally and weapons supplier, described the images from the aftermath as devastating.

The strike, one of the deadliest single incidents in the eight-month war to date, came two days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, which arbitrates between states, ordered Israel to stop its operation in Rafah immediately.

More than 85 percent of the Palestinian territory’s population had sought shelter in the area having fled fighting elsewhere, and a million people have been forced to move again since Israel’s ground operation began on 6 May 2024

Israeli ground troops have so far probed Rafah’s southern and eastern outskirts, rather than its overcrowded centre. Also, aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle, with the Rafah and nearby Kerem Shalom crossings effectively blocked.

International censure of Israel’s war against Hamas has grown steadily in tandem with the death toll and humanitarian crisis in the strip, but Israeli officials have repeatedly said that a ground operation in Rafah, where it believes Hamas’ leadership and four battalions of fighters are camped out with Israeli hostages, is necessary for “total victory”.

Friday’s order from the ICJ is binding, but not enforceable. Several countries called on Israel to obey the judges’ 13-2 majority decision in the wake of the Rafah strike.

Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas in attempts to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages, said the Rafah casualties would complicate the protracted negotiations.

This is as the Israeli daily Haaretz reported later on Monday that Hamas had decided to pull out of the latest proposed talks over what its senior leadership described as a massacre.

Similarly, neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, which made peace with Israel decades ago, have also condemned the Rafah strike. – With The Guardian report