Netanyahu claims civilian deaths in Rafah were “tragic” mistake; how limited is the “limited operation” in Rafah?; Rafah bombing is “the crime of crimes” – genocide; Amnesty Int’l and Reporters Without Borders call for war crimes investigations by ICC; US response to Rafah attack, more
By IAK staff, from reports.
If you missed the news yesterday, this video will bring you up to speed on Israel’s horrific attack on a tent encampment in Rafah, southern Gaza:
(the number killed has reportedly risen from 45 to at least 50)
Netanyahu claims: despite Israel’s best efforts, something went “tragically wrong”
“In Rafah, we already evacuated about 1 million non-combatant residents and despite our utmost effort not to harm non-combatants, something unfortunately went tragically wrong,” he said in a speech in parliament that was interrupted by shouting from opposition lawmakers.
NOTE: Contrary to its claims made to Western media, Israel has reportedly not made any provisions for the evacuation of Rafah. An eyewitness reports, “People who flee have to pay for private cars or animal-drawn carts to move them. Those who have no money try to walk. Some are too impoverished or have sick or elderly family members and cannot make the trip. No food, water or other basic necessities are provided for them. Most of all, there is no guarantee of safety.”
Returning to the Reuters report: Video footage obtained by Reuters showed a fire raging in the darkness and people screaming in panic. A group of young men tried to haul away sheets of corrugated iron and a hose from a single fire truck began to douse the flames.
More than half of the dead were women, children, and elderly people, health officials said, adding that the death toll was likely to rise from people with severe burns.
Israel’s military said Sunday’s strike, based on “precise intelligence”, had allegedly eliminated Hamas’ chief of staff for the second and larger Palestinian territory, the West Bank, plus another official behind deadly attacks on Israelis.
Israel has kept up its offensive despite a ruling by the top U.N. court on Friday ordering it to stop, saying the court’s ruling grants it some scope for military action there. The court also reiterated calls for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
The U.S. urged Israel to take more care to protect civilians, but stopped short of calling for a halt to the Rafah incursion.
“Israel has a right to go after Hamas, and we understand this strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians,” a National Security Council spokesperson said. “But as we’ve been clear, Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians.”
HA’ARETZ ADDS: Following criticism of Sunday night’s strike on Rafah, the Israel Defense Forces said that “before the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chances of harm to uninvolved people, including a visual aerial inspection, the use of precision weaponry, and the use of additional intelligence information – on the basis of which it was estimated that harm to uninvolved civilians was not expected.”
Attacks in Rafah are still ongoing, and the death toll continues to climb.
Total of charred bodies evacuated so far reached 66..
For the second night, Israeli occupation forces attack and burn tents of displaced people in #Rafah!#RafahUnderAttack #StopGazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/SppnTOWQEZ
— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) May 28, 2024
Statement on Gaza by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Statement: We have said repeatedly that no place is safe in Gaza. Not shelters. Not hospitals. Not the so-called humanitarian zones.
We have also warned that a military operation in Rafah would lead to a slaughter.
We’ve seen the consequences in last night’s utterly unacceptable attack.
Whether the attack was a war crime or a “tragic mistake,” for the people of Gaza, there is no debate. What happened last night was the latest – and possibly most cruel – abomination.
To call it “a mistake” is a message that means nothing for those killed, those grieving, and those trying to save lives.
This Is What Israel’s ‘Limited Operation’ in Rafah Looks Like
Ha’aretz reports: Between May 8 and May 20, about a thousand buildings in the Rafah governorate were either damaged or destroyed, according to U.S. researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek of the University of Oregon and Cory Scher of CUNY, who have been tracking the damage to buildings by analyzing satellite data.
According to their analysis, from the start of the war through this week, 38.5 percent of the buildings in Rafah have been damaged or destroyed.
In the first months of the war, the army ordered Gazans to evacuate southward and said that anyone who remained in the evacuation zone was risking their lives.
A majority of the Gaza population, an estimated 1.4 million people, crowded into the Rafah governorate, which prior to the war was home to about 300,000 people. Huge tent cities were erected there and the population has been living in difficult humanitarian conditions.
Since February, the Netanyahu government has insisted that a Rafah incursion is crucial for dismantling the remaining Hamas battalions and tunnels that cross into Egypt, as part of its stated goal of destroying Hamas’ civil and military control of the enclave.
Consequently, according to UN estimates, between May 6 and May 18, more than 800,000 people have fled Rafah. Many have already been uprooted several times during the war, setting out with hardly any belongings, and many of them still injured.
These displaced Gazans headed north to Khan Yunis and Dir al-Balah, where tent cities were recently erected. The UN says that some are also trying to find shelter on farmland, on roads and in buildings that were damaged in the war.
According to UN monitoring, from early February until the start of the ground invasion, the IDF bombed areas in Rafah dozens of times. The UN reported that hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the bombings, which the IDF said were targeted against Hamas.
Rafah bombing is the ‘crime of crimes’: Former UNRWA spokesperson
Chris Gunness tells Al Jazeera that it is a “tragedy” that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians think that they can take refuge “under the light blue UN flag” in Rafah.
“Let us pray that we’re now going to move forward with arrest warrants against Gallant and Netanyahu; they need now to become wanted war criminals,” Gunness said.
“We’re now seeing blatant disregard for the Genocide Convention. There is no exception to the Genocide Convention. There are no excuses. This is the crime of crimes,” he said.
Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the ICC exposed
The Guardian reports: When the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) announced he was seeking arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders, he issued a cryptic warning: “I insist that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence the officials of this court must cease immediately.”
Karim Khan did not provide specific details of attempts to interfere in the ICC’s work, but he noted a clause in the court’s foundational treaty that made any such interference a criminal offense. If the conduct continued, he added, “my office will not hesitate to act”.
The prosecutor did not say who had attempted to intervene in the administration of justice, or how exactly they had done so.
Now, an investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call can reveal how Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the court. The country deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.
WATCH: Palestinians in Jabalia use bare hands to dig for survivors after deadly Israeli attack:
His family survived the Holocaust.
He founded Human Rights Watch.
He directed the ACLU.Now he’s saying Israel is engaged in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Excellent CNN interview: pic.twitter.com/l6UKt3640Z
— Omar Baddar عمر بدّار (@OmarBaddar) May 27, 2024
Rafah hospital out of service: Official
Al Jazeera reports: The Kuwaiti Hospital in the southern Gaza city has been rendered non-operational, according to its director, due to intentional attacks by Israeli forces on the hospital’s staff and the surrounding area.
“Due to the enemy’s expansion of the military operation in Rafah Governorate and the repeated and deliberate attacks on the hospital’s surroundings, the most recent of which was targeting the hospital gate, which led to the death of two staff working in the hospital, as well as the injury of 5 medical staff in a previous targeting, we announce that the Kuwait Specialized Hospital will be out of service,” Dr Suhaib al-Hams said in a statement.
“The working medical teams were transferred to the field hospital, which is being prepared in the al-Mawasi area” on Gaza’s coast, he added.
Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah faces imminent shutdown due to fuel shortage: Government
Al Jazeera reports: Gaza’s Government Media Office says in a statement that Deir el-Balah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is once again facing an imminent risk of shutdown.
It comes after Israeli forces blocked the supply of fuel on Sunday afternoon.
The government called on the international community to pressure Israel to supply 50,000 liters (13,208 gallons) of fuel to the hospital to ensure it can function for at least 10 days.
“The hospital administration holds the Israeli occupation and the American administration fully responsible for this terrible crime,” it said.
10,000 Gazan children orphaned, 17,000 children left unaccompanied/separated, over one million people have lost their homes
OCHA reports: On 24 May, UNRWA reported that, due to the closure of Rafah Crossing and disruption of aid flow via Kerem Shalom Crossing, its health centres had not received any medical supplies for the past 12 days, affecting medicine stocks especially antibiotics for children and anti-epileptic drugs.
Over five per cent of Gaza’s population has been either killed, injured, or is missing. At least 3,000 women are estimated to be widowed, 10,000 children orphaned, 17,000 children left unaccompanied or separated, and more than one million people have lost their homes.
Aid trucks arrive in Gaza but no deliveries yet – sources
Reuters reports: More than 100 aid trucks managed to reach the Gaza Strip by Monday morning after an agreement to reroute aid through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, but supplies have not been distributed amid an ongoing Israeli assault, sources said.
Deliveries are badly needed as little aid has reached southern Gaza since May 6, when Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, about 3.5 km from Kerem Shalom and the main entry point into Gaza for humanitarian and commercial supplies.
The latest arrivals would be the biggest aid delivery into southern Gaza by far since the launch of Israel’s attacks in Rafah over three weeks ago, with most days seeing no trucks crossing the border.
NOTE: Thousands of aid trucks are reportedly waiting just outside Gaza, where Israel has made it extremely difficult to pass, employing complicated and arbitrary procedures. Israel has on multiple occasions fired at individuals waiting for food aid (once killing over 100); Israel has also attacked food aid convoys. Additionally, Israeli citizens have blocked a border crossing for weeks, and attacked and looted trucks they believed were heading to Gaza – all with no meaningful attempt by Israel to stop them.
In mid-March, Israel promised to “flood” Gaza with aid, but has failed to do so.
The US has for months expressed its desire to see appropriate amounts of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza on one hand, while undermining Gaza’s largest aid organization on the other.
Meanwhile, the US has built a “temporary pier” off the Gaza coast to receive aid by sea – at a cost of at least $320 million (which has so far been ineffective) – and has, along with other countries, airdropped packages of aid into Gaza – causing over 20 Palestinian deaths due to malfunction.
The Biden administration has so far not used its leverage as the provider of billions of dollars in military aid to and for Israel (with one exception), a move that could potentially end the war in short order.
Amnesty urges ICC to probe alleged war crimes in recent Israeli strikes on Gaza
Statement from Amnesty International: The International Criminal Court should investigate as war crimes three Israeli air strikes that killed 44 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children, in the occupied Gaza Strip last month, Amnesty International said today.
The strikes – one on al-Maghazi on April 16, and two on Rafah on April 19 and 20, 2024 – also injured at least 20 civilians, and are further evidence of a broader pattern of war crimes committed by the Israeli military in the occupied Gaza Strip in the last seven months.
“These devastating strikes have decimated families and cruelly cut short the lives of 32 children,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
“Our findings offer crucial evidence of unlawful attacks by the Israeli military as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applies for arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As the Israeli military continues to escalate its ground incursion in Rafah, these cases also illustrate the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire.”
“Despite growing calls to end arms transfers to Israel, a UN Security Council resolution ordering a ceasefire, and world leaders warning against the Israeli ground incursion into Rafah, the Israeli military has continued to escalate its operations, including these unrelenting attacks on civilians,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.
“The cases documented here illustrate a clear pattern of attacks over the past seven months in which the Israeli military has flouted international law, killing Palestinian civilians with total impunity and displaying a callous disregard for human lives.”
Since October 2023, Amnesty International has conducted in-depth investigations into 16 Israeli air strikes that killed a total of 370 civilians, including 159 children, and left hundreds more wounded. Amnesty International has found evidence of war crimes by Israeli forces, including direct attacks on civilians or indiscriminate attacks, as well as other unlawful attacks and collective punishment of the civilian population.
(Read the full statement here.)
Reporters Without Borders files third Gaza complaint at ICC
Reporters Without Borders statement: Submitted on 24 May, three days before the ninth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 2222 on protecting journalists in wartime, RSF’s latest complaint comes just days after the ICC’s prosecutor issued his first requests for arrest warrants in connection with the Gaza conflict.
The complaint reiterates RSF’s request to the prosecutor to comply with article 15 of the ICC’s Rome Statute by prioritising the investigation into the IDF’s crimes against journalists in Gaza since 7 October.
RSF has filed this third complaint with the Hague-based ICC because the number of journalists killed in Gaza by the IDF is continuing to grow after passing the 100 mark, in an eradication of the Palestinian media.
The complaint, which follows those filed on 31 October and 22 December, details eight new cases of Palestinian journalists killed between 20 December and 20 May, as well as the case of a journalist who was injured. All concerned journalists were killed (or injured) in the course of their work. RSF has reasonable grounds for thinking that some of these journalists were deliberately killed and that the others were the victims of deliberate IDF attacks against civilians.
(Read the full statement here.)
Biden spokesperson says ‘Israel has a right to go after Hamas’ after Rafah massacre
Middle East Eye reports: A White House National Security Council spokesperson commented on the Israeli strike on displaced Palestinians that killed 45 people, saying that while Israel should “take every precaution” to protect civilians, Israel “has a right to go after Hamas”.
“Israel has a right to go after Hamas, and we understand this strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians,” the spokesperson said, as reported by Reuters.
“We are actively engaging the IDF and partners on the ground to assess what happened, and understand that the IDF is conducting an investigation.
“The spokesperson referred to the footage that came out of the strike – which included a baby whose head was severed from its body – as “devastating”.
Canada, ‘horrified’ by Israeli attack in Rafah, pledges more visas for Gazans
Reuters reports: Canada said on Monday it will issue visas to 5,000 Gazans, more than it originally pledged, and said it was “horrified” by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah that triggered a blaze causing 45 deaths.
The visas for Canadians’ relatives living in the enclave represent a five-fold increase from the 1,000 temporary resident visas allotted under a special program that Canada announced in December.
“While movement out of Gaza is not currently possible, the situation may change at any time. With this cap increase, we will be ready to help more people as the situation evolves,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller said.
Sources: Internal IDF Report Finds Two Gazans Died After Being Beaten en Route to Israeli Prison
Ha’aretz reports: An Israeli Military Police investigation found that two detainees who were taken from Gaza to the Sde Teiman detention facility in Israel were beaten and later died, say two sources who spoke with Haaretz.
The two detainees, who were arrested by IDF soldiers in March in the Khan Yunis area on suspicion of being terrorists, were alive and bound with a strap when they were put on a truck. They were found dead when they arrived at Sde Teiman, a temporary detention facility near Be’er Sheva, operated by the army.
The investigation’s findings contradicts the soldiers’ claim that the two might have died as a result of the extremely bumpy ride over rough terrain. The soldiers are suspected of beating the detainees in multiple body parts, and the evidence suggests that one of them sustained head injury. The army will determine how to proceed with the investigation once an autopsy has been conducted.
Several soldiers have been questioned under caution, but no one was arrested on suspicion of causing the death of the two men, as in 33 other deaths of residents of the Gaza Strip who were arrested during the war and brought to Israel.
The conditions in which the detainees are kept at Sde Teiman, which were reported by Haaretz and the world press is an issue slated to be discussed by Israel’s High Court of Justice next week.
MORE NEWS:
Al Jazeera: South Africa universities face pressure to follow their gov’t in cutting ties with Israel
Middle East Eye: Rafah camp bombing: World leaders ‘horrified’ by Israeli air strike
IMEMC Reports.
Does the world know who the Israelis killed in their tents, burned alive in agony; well, here they are, be introduced to the dead #RafahHolocaust pic.twitter.com/4fYblSu3Ug
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) May 27, 2024
Enough. If President Biden sends even one more missile to the Israeli government after seeing the apocalyptic footage of headless Palestinian children and others burned alive using U.S. bombs in a so-called #Rafah safe zone, he will once again cross his own red line and every red… pic.twitter.com/84Gh9hTZYs
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) May 27, 2024
At least 40 children, women and men are confirmed dead in Rafah after an Israeli airstrike last night on tents housing those forced to flee within Gaza.
How many more red lines must be crossed?
Our appeal to EU leaders meeting now:#NoMoreRedLines pic.twitter.com/gkKjxev97Y
— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) May 27, 2024
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – MAY 27:
Palestinian death toll from October 7 – May 27: at least 36,567* (36,050 in Gaza* – 4,959 women (20%), 7,797 children (32%). This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those hilled have yet to be identified – and at least 517 in the West Bank (~117 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 43,640 Palestinian deaths. (Ralph Nader has estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.)
At least 42 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 14 from West Bank).
At least 31 Palestinian children and several adults have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
About 1.1 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are facing Catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – May 27: at least 86,066 (including at least 81,026 in Gaza and 5,040 in the West Bank).
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – May 27: ~1,440 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 287 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.
Times of Israel reports: The IDF also listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.
**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
- Unmasking counterprotesters who attacked UCLA’s pro-Palestine encampment.
- I created the Leahy law. It should be applied to Israel.
- Biden’s war on Gaza is now a war on truth and the right to protest.
- Massie Taunts AIPAC After Demolishing Primary Challengers.
- Israeli military censor bans highest number of articles in over a decade.
- Long History of Jewish Dissent Over Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians.
- Israel shuts down Associated Press’ Gaza live video feed, confiscates equipment.
- NYC deputy mayor charges Washington Post with antisemitism.
- The Right of Return to Free Palestine.
- Unpacking the Israeli campaign to deny the Gaza genocide.
- Billionaires for Israel started a group with 100 members to secretly work on behalf of Israel. (video).
- War on Gaza: Why Israel deserves to be singled out for criticism.
- Medical Workers Evacuated from Gaza, But 3 Americans Refuse To Leave.
- Rain is Coming – On the ongoing Nakba, and the present revolution.
- The Israel-Affiliated Organization Leading the Backlash Against Student Protests.
- Debunking three myths about pro-Palestine student protests in the US.
- Detailed study finds 99% of pro-Palestine protests at US universities are peaceful.
- “Yes, it is genocide” –Israeli genocide scholar.
- Cruelty of language: Leaked NY Times memo reveals moral depravity of US media.
- OCTOBER 7—The Lies in Brief.
