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Netanyahu criticizes attack on Rafah: “Tragic mistake”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Monday that a deadly airstrike on the southern Gaza city of Rafah was a “tragic mistake,” several media outlets reported. Israel said it would investigate the attack, which Gaza officials said killed at least 45 people. Israel is also coming under increasing pressure over its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Key data

Netanyahu commented on the attack in a speech on Monday, calling it a “tragic mistake,” according to a translation by Israeli news channel Haaretz.

At least 45 people were killed and 200 others wounded in the Israeli Defense Forces’ attack on southern Gaza. The attack hit a camp where displaced Palestinians had sought refuge, several media outlets reported, citing footage of the attack and eyewitnesses on the scene. Some of them described fierce fires and charred bodies.

According to Israeli officials, the aim of the attack was to kill Hamas officials, and an operational assessment of the target area showed that no civilians would be harmed in the attack (the Israel Defense Forces also said in a tweet that the attack took place outside a designated humanitarian area in the densely populated Gaza Strip).

Although Israeli officials said two Hamas leaders – Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar – were killed in the attack, a doctor who spoke to The New York Times and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said the vast majority of the victims were civilians, mostly women and children.

International politicians have also condemned the attack: The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, said he was “deeply disturbed by the deaths of so many women and children in an area where people have sought protection”.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council also described the images of the attack as “heartbreaking” in a comment to Axios’ Barak Ravid and argued that while Israel “has the right to take action against Hamas,” it must “take all possible precautions to protect civilians.”

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Important background

The attack comes as the war in Gaza continues for nearly eight months, with the death toll in Gaza rising to 36,000, according to estimates by the Hamas-run Health Ministry (over 1,200 people died in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel). Israeli politicians are also facing renewed pressure from Western politicians to halt their military offensive in Rafah, and ceasefire talks appear to be making slow progress, although the two sides have not yet agreed on a ceasefire measure. Just last week, the United Nations’ highest court ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah and open the Rafah crossing to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Palestinian enclave. While that order appears to reinforce growing sentiment among Western politicians for a ceasefire, it is itself unenforceable.

tangent

Also on Monday, Israeli and Egyptian forces exchanged fire near the Gaza-Egypt border. According to several reports, a member of Egyptian security personnel was killed. Both sides confirmed the exchange of fire, and Israeli forces said the shooting was under investigation. It remains unclear which side initiated the exchange of fire, but Israeli troops on the ground told Haaretz that Egypt opened fire.

Further information

ForbesReports say: At least one man died in fire exchange between Israel and EgyptFrom Brian BushardForbesUN Supreme Court: Israel must stop Rafah offensiveFrom James Farrell

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