'Holocaust': Israel launches 60 air raids on Rafah 48hrs after ICJ stop-order, incinerates tent-camp burning dozens of people alive

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
Sun, 26 May 2024 20:17 UTC

MAY 26: Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians

Israel continues to ignore orders from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), including the Court's most recent ruling. This ruling requires Israel to halt its military assault on the Rafah Governorate in the southern Gaza Strip and reopen the Rafah border crossing to facilitate the movement of people and humanitarian aid. In the 48 hours that followed the ICJ's ruling on Friday 24 May, however, Israel conducted more than 60 air raids on Rafah.

Furthermore, dozens of artillery shells and constant gunfire were fired in areas of Rafah where the Israeli military was encroaching. Israel's ground incursion began at dawn on 7 May and has since spread to the west and central parts of the city, mostly along the border strip. It has already impacted a significant portion of the city.

Thirteen Palestinians were killed in the 48 hours following the Court's ruling, including six members of the Qishta family, an elderly mother and three of her children — two girls and one boy — and an adult son and his two children. The victims were killed when Israeli planes bombed their home on Saturday 25 May in Khirbet Al-Adas, north of Rafah, an area not included in the Israeli evacuation orders.

Three distinct air raids were also carried out on the same day (25 May) targeting the city's Al-Shaboura Camp and Awni Dhair Street, resulting in the killing of five civilians.

A Palestinian was also killed and others were injured on Sunday afternoon when Israeli aircraft bombed the Rasras family's house in the centre of Rafah city, while another Palestinian was killed and others were injured on the day of the Court session.

During the Court session to decide on South Africa's request, the Israeli army increased its intense bombing of central Rafah, including the Shaboura camp. It destroyed numerous homes and streets, and later claimed that the incident was connected to an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate a leader in a Palestinian faction. As a result, civilians continue pay a heavy price for Israeli military attacks that flagrantly transgress international humanitarian law, particularly the principles of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity, i.e. taking appropriate precautions to avoid civilian deaths. It is important to note that these attacks are classified as war crimes under the Rome Statute.

Comment: Footage from the refugee camp on Sunday - viewer discretion is advised:

Israel did not hold back in publicly rejecting the Court's ruling. The bombing, killing, and destruction intensified immediately after the session ended. The Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, swiftly denounced the Court's decision and attacked it, citing religious statements that denigrate non-Jews. Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir responded, "Our future does not depend on what the gentiles say, but rather on what we Jews do."

According to Israeli Channel 12, Netanyahu stated that "occupying Rafah and increasing military pressure on Hamas" is the proper response to the Court's decision, which he called "antisemitic".

The victims of the Israeli army's bombing are still lying in the streets and under the debris of destroyed homes, particularly in the eastern and central parts of the city, as rescue workers and medical teams are unable to remove them from those areas, according to the Euro-Med Monitor field team.

In addition to the hundreds of housing units destroyed since the beginning of the most recent attack on Rafah, during which entire neighbourhoods were destroyed and reduced to rubble, the Euro-Med Monitor team had also previously received information about the destruction of approximately 170 housing units.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme warehouse and the UNRWA distribution centre in Rafah remain inaccessible due to the ongoing Israeli military attack.

Since taking control of the Rafah border crossing on 7 May, Israeli forces have prevented the entry of humanitarian aid through it (beginning the day before, on 6 May) and have continued to keep it closed to sick and injured people seeking to receive medical treatment abroad.

Discussions about reaching a deal to allow aid trucks to pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which Israel closed on 5 May, do not address the root causes of the issue, nor do they provide for the 2.3 million people living in the Strip. These individuals are victims of ethnic cleansing and genocide and once more face the threat of starvation, as eight months have passed since the start of the Israeli aggression.

According to UNRWA, the current Israeli military operation in Rafah is directly impacting the ability of aid agencies to bring critical humanitarian supplies into the Strip, as well as the ability to rotate critical humanitarian staff. From 1-20 May, according to OCHA, 14 missions which were heading to Kerem Shalom to collect aid supplies encountered delays due to traffic congestions blocking the road and delayed clearance by Israeli authorities, resulting in six missions being aborted. During this reporting period (20-22 May), the border crossings were only opened for one day, and only 39 trucks entered the Strip via the Kerem Shalom and Rafah land crossings. Only 143 trucks have entered the Gaza strip via the Karem Abu Salem crossing since 6-20 May.

Israel is continuing its crimes in defiance of the highest international justice body, which issued precautionary measures to prevent genocide on 26 January 2024 and additional precautionary measures on 28 March 2024, plus its latest precautionary measures, issued last Friday. Israel has been carrying out the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip continuously since 7 October 2023, with no real accountability for its crimes, amid the ongoing failure of the international community to protect the Palestinian people from this blatant genocide.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reiterates its call on all nations to fulfil their international obligations and halt all military, political, and financial support for Israel's military assault on the Gaza Strip. In particular, all arms transfers to Israel, including export permits and military assistance, must end immediately; otherwise, these nations will be considered complicit in Israeli crimes committed in the Strip, including genocide.

Furthermore, Euro-Med Monitor urges the International Criminal Court (ICC) to acknowledge and handle Israel's crimes in the Gaza Strip as international crimes, as they fall under the Court's jurisdiction. Additionally, Euro-Med Monitor asks the Court to expand its lists of arrest warrants to include more Israeli officials.

Comment: Al Jazeera reports on the bombing of the camp:

'Heinous massacre': Israel's attack on Rafah tent camp widely condemned

Several countries and global organisations have condemned the Israeli air attack on tents housing displaced people in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah that killed at least 40 Palestinians, including many children.

The Palestinian presidency on Monday accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, joining a chorus of worldwide condemnation following the attack.

"The perpetration of this heinous massacre by the Israeli occupation forces is a challenge to all international legitimacy resolutions," 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 Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said the images from Rafah are yet another testament that Gaza is "hell on earth".

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called the attack a "massacre", holding the United States responsible for aiding Israel with weapons and money.

Israel's top military prosecutor described the attack as "very grave" and said an investigation will be conducted. "The details of the incident are still under an investigation, which we are committed to conducting to the fullest extent," Major-General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi told a news conference, adding that the Israeli army "regrets any harm to non-combatants during the war".

Palestinian witnesses and Al Jazeera's fact-checking agency Sanad said the camp sheltering civilians in Rafah's Tal as-Sultan area was deliberately targeted.

The Wafa news agency, citing the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said the dead included women and children, with many "burned alive" inside their tents.

Just a month or so ago, the IDF used tanks to literally crush families alive in tents whilst they were sleeping.

One of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah said the "tents were melting and the people's bodies are also melting" after the attack.

Here are some reactions from governments and other officials from around the world:

'Deliberate bombardment'

• Qatar condemned the Rafah attack as a grave violation of international laws that will aggravate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip. It said the attack could hinder mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Qatar, alongside the US and Egypt, has been engaged in months of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
• Egypt condemned the "deliberate bombardment". In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Israel to "implement the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning an immediate cessation of military operations" in Rafah.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would do "everything possible" to hold "barbaric" Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to account over the deadly strikes. "We will do everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers accountable who have nothing to do with humanity," he said.
• Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said the bombing of Rafah was "one more day with innocent Palestinian civilians being killed". He said the gravity of the attack "is even larger" because it comes after the ICJ order directing Israel to halt its operation in Rafah and the rest of Gaza.
• Ireland's Foreign Minister Micheal Martin described the attack as "barbaric". "One cannot bomb an area like that without shocking consequences in terms of innocent children and civilians. We would urge Israel to stop, to stop now, in terms of the military operation in Rafah."
• Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the attacks are a "material breach of the decision of the highest court of the world". He added: "We've had a compulsory order from the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to stop its attack in Rafah. It is compulsory. It's binding."

• The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel must abide by the ICJ ruling to stop its offensive in Rafah as EU foreign ministers met their Arab counterparts in Brussels hours after Israel's deadly attack on Rafah.
• Before the EU ministers' meeting on Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, "International humanitarian law applies for all, also for Israel's conduct of the war."
• Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the United Kingdom's Labour Party, labelled Israel's bombing of the Rafah camp a "monstrous failure of humanity". In a post on X, he said, "Palestinian children should wake up feeling excited to go to school and play with their friends. Instead, for those murdered in Rafah, their last moments on this earth were filled with unimaginable fear as bombs rained down on their tents."

'Children dismembered, burnt alive'

• Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, posted on X: "Days after the ICJ orders Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, the Israeli Government bombs displaced people living in tents. Innocent men, women & children dismembered and burnt alive. Bear witness to the images and ask yourself, are you on the right side of history?"

• In one of the strongest criticisms Italy has made so far, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said the 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," he said. "We are watching the situation with despair."
• Jagmeet Singh, a Canadian legislator 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."
• US House Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "immediately halt" the assault on Rafah. "The horrific loss of innocent lives today with the bombing of a refugee camp underscores the moral urgency of stopping 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 X, Touma-Sliman said, "This bloody government refuses to obey all orders of the tribunal, and is taking the madness and vindictiveness to a new criminal level."

• Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory, described Israel's attack on the tent camp in Rafah as "unacceptable". In a post on X, she wrote, "The #GazaGenocide will not easily end without external pressure: Israel must face sanctions, justice, suspension of agreements, trade, partnership and investments, as well as participation in int'l forums."

'Monstrous atrocity'

• Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, called for action against Israel in the wake of its latest attack. Writing on X, he said, "Attacking women and children while they cower in their shelters in Rafah is a monstrous atrocity. We need concerted global action to stop Israel's actions now."
• Chris Gunness, former spokesperson for UNRWA, said the three judges at the pre-trial chamber at the International Criminal Court (ICC) "are as horrified as the rest of the world" about the Israeli attack on Rafah. "There is no exception to the Genocide Convention. There are no excuses. This is the crime of crimes," he said.
• In a statement on X, charity Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) said it was "horrified" by the attack, which "shows once again that nowhere is safe." It added: "We continue to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza."
• ActionAid humanitarian group says it was "outraged and heartbroken" by the "inhumane, barbaric" attack on the Rafah camp. "The images coming from our partners of burned bodies are a scar on the face of humanity and the global community, which so far has failed to protect the people of Gaza," it says, adding that one of its colleagues narrowly escaped, having left the shelter just a day before the attack.
• Triestino Mariniello, a lawyer with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCGR), said the attack on a designated safe zone shows that Israel is still ignoring the ICJ. "These horrible images that arrive from Rafah show that the Israeli authorities are completely disregarding the binding, provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice."
• In her post on X, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the US-based think tank DAWN, asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken: "Does burning people in refugee tents count as a 'serious offensive that fails to protect civilians' in Rafah?"
• Dalal Mawad, an award-winning Lebanese journalist, also weighed in, writing on X: "In 1996, I saw a decapitated newborn baby in the Qana massacre perpetrated by Israel in a UN displaced camp in the south of Lebanon. I never recovered from that sight. Last night, the same crime was committed again. Impunity means history will always repeat itself."

More footage and commentary from X, which includes the Orwellian reporting from Western outlets; depraved commentary from Israeli journalists and IDF; and footage of protests that erupted in Turkey in response to the massacre: