“Horrible massacre”: Israel’s attack on Rafah tent camp is widely condemned | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

Qatar describes the attack, in which at least 40 Palestinians were killed, as a “serious violation of international law” and the UN Special Rapporteur calls for sanctions against Israel.

Several countries and international organizations have condemned the Israeli airstrike on tents of displaced people in Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, in which at least 40 Palestinians, including many children, were killed.

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

“The carrying out of this heinous massacre by the Israeli occupation forces calls into question all resolutions on the legitimacy of international organizations,” said a statement by the Palestinian president. The Israeli forces were accused of “deliberately attacking” the tents of the displaced people.

The United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said in a statement to X that the images from Rafah were further proof that Gaza was “hell on earth.”

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called the attack a “massacre” and blamed the United States for supporting Israel with weapons and money.

Israel’s chief military prosecutor called the attack “very serious” and announced an investigation. “The details of the incident are still the subject of an investigation, which we will conduct in full,” Major General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi said at a press conference, adding that the Israeli army “regrets any harm inflicted on non-combatants during the war.”

Palestinian witnesses and Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad said the camp, which housed civilians in the Tal as-Sultan district of Rafah, was targeted.

The Wafa news agency reported, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), that women and children were among the dead. Many were “burned alive” in their tents.

One of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah said after the attack that “the tents were melting and people’s bodies were melting too.”

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

“Intentional bombing”

• Qatar condemned the attack on Rafah as a serious violation of international law that would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip. According to a statement by the Foreign Ministry, the attack could hamper mediation efforts for a ceasefire and hostage exchange. Qatar has been in talks with the United States and Egypt for months aimed at a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would do “everything possible” to hold “barbaric” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable for the deadly attacks in Rafah.
• Egypt condemned the “deliberate bombing.” In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry called on Israel to implement “the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to immediately halt military operations” in Rafah.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would do “everything possible” to hold “barbaric” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable for the deadly attacks. “We will do everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers who have nothing to do with humanity accountable,” he said.
• Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the Rafah bombing was “another day of innocent Palestinian civilians being killed.” He said the severity of the attack was “even more serious” because it came after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to cease its operations in Rafah and the rest of the Gaza Strip.
• Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin described the attack as “barbaric”. “You cannot bomb an area like this without having shocking consequences for innocent children and civilians. We call on Israel to end the military operation in Rafah immediately.”
• Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the attacks were a “fundamental violation of the decision of the highest court in the world.” He added: “We have a binding order from the International Court of Justice calling on Israel to stop its attack in Rafah. That is imperative. It is binding.”
  
• European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel must abide by the International Court of Justice ruling and end its offensive in Rafah as EU foreign ministers met with their Arab counterparts in Brussels, hours after the deadly Israeli attack on Rafah.

• Before the EU ministerial meeting on Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said: “International humanitarian law applies to everyone, including Israel’s conduct of war.”

• Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the British Labour Party, called Israel’s bombing of the Rafah camp a “monstrous failure of humanity”. In a post on X, he said: “Palestinian children should wake up and look forward to going to school and playing with their friends. Instead, the last moments on this earth for those killed in Rafah were filled with unimaginable fear as bombs rained down on their tents.”

“Children dismembered and burned alive”

• Humza Yousaf, the former First Minister of Scotland, posted on X: “Days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, the Israeli government is bombing displaced people living in tents. Innocent men, women and children are being dismembered and burned alive. Look at the images and ask yourself: are you on the right side of history?”
  
• In one of Italy’s harshest criticisms to date, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the Israeli attacks were no longer justified. “The situation is becoming increasingly difficult, the Palestinian people are being put under pressure 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 MP and leader of the New Democratic Party, wrote on X: “The world is failing the people of Gaza. Canada is failing the people of Gaza.”
• Democratic U.S. Representative Ro Khanna called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “immediately stop” the attack on Rafah. “The horrific loss of innocent life today in 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, condemned the Netanyahu government for its “madness and vindictiveness.” Writing on X, Touma-Sliman said: “This damned government refuses to obey all the tribunal’s orders, taking its madness and vindictiveness to a new criminal level.”

• Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, called Israel’s attack on the Rafah camp “unacceptable”. In a post on X, she wrote: “The #Gazagenocide will not end easily without external pressure: Israel must expect sanctions, justice, the suspension of agreements, trade, partnership and investment, and participation in international forums.”

“Monstrous atrocity”

• Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, called for action against Israel following the latest attack. Writing on X, he said: “Attacking women and children as they cower in their makeshift shelters in Rafah is an outrageous atrocity. We need concerted global action to stop Israel’s actions now.”
• Chris Gunness, a former UNRWA spokesman, said the three judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) were “as appalled as the rest of the world” by the Israeli attack on Rafah. “There is no exception to the Genocide Convention. There are no excuses. This is the crime of all crimes,” he said.
• In a statement on X, the aid organization Doctors Without Borders (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 lasting ceasefire in Gaza.”
• The humanitarian organization ActionAid expressed its “outrage and deep sadness” at the “inhuman, barbaric” attack on the Rafah camp. “The images of our partners with burned bodies are a scar on the face of humanity and the global community, which has so far failed to protect the people of Gaza,” the statement said. One of their colleagues narrowly escaped after leaving the shelter just one day before the attack.
• Triestino Mariniello, a lawyer at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCGR), said the attack on a designated security zone showed that Israel was still ignoring the International Court of Justice. “These horrific images from Rafah show that the Israeli authorities are completely disregarding the binding, provisional measures of the International Court of Justice.”
• In her post on X, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the US think tank DAWN, asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “Does burning people in refugee tents count as a ‘major offensive that fails to protect civilians in Rafah’?”
• Dalal Mawad, an award-winning Lebanese journalist, also spoke out, writing on X: “In 1996, I saw a beheaded newborn baby during the Qana massacre that Israel committed in a UN refugee camp in southern Lebanon. I have never recovered from that sight. Last night, the same crime was committed again. Impunity means that history will always repeat itself.”