In the face of worldwide outrage, Netanyahu describes the civilian deaths in the Rafah attack as a “tragic accident”

Amid mounting international criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday the killing of dozens of people a day earlier in a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah was a “tragic accident.” But he stopped short of suggesting that Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza city would slow.

The deadly fire that raged through the camp on Sunday following an airstrike came at a particularly sensitive time for Israel: just days after the International Court of Justice appeared to order the country’s military to halt its offensive in Rafah and as diplomats tried to resume negotiations on a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli military said Sunday’s attack in Rafah targeted a Hamas compound and that “precise munitions” were used against a commander and another senior militant official there.

But according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 45 people, including children, were killed by the explosion and the fires it caused. 249 people were injured, it said.

In a speech to Israel’s parliament on Monday, Netanyahu said the military had tried to protect civilians by issuing evacuation orders. He added that about a million civilians had left Rafah before or during the offensive. “Despite our best efforts not to harm innocent civilians,” he said, “to our regret, a tragic accident occurred last night.”

He accused Hamas of hiding among the population and said: “For us, every innocent civilian who is injured is a tragedy. For Hamas, it is a strategy. That is the whole difference.”

As images of the dead and maimed appeared on screens around the world, condemnation was immediate. The latest disgrace is likely to make it even harder for Israel to continue its campaign against Hamas in Rafah, the southern Gaza city to which around a million displaced Gazans have fled.

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron, an ally of Israel, expressed “outrage” over the Rafah airstrike and said these operations “must stop.” He called for “full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.”

The Israeli government, which invaded Gaza after a Hamas-led attack from there killed some 1,200 Israelis, argues it has no choice but to invade Rafah if it wants to wipe out the militants. The town, Israelis say, is a stronghold from which Hamas fighters fired rockets deep into central Israel on Sunday for the first time in months.

But Rafah is home to displaced Gazans forced to move to the city by earlier fighting in the north, and world leaders have warned of the dangers of a major military operation there.

Sunday’s deaths appeared to be exactly what those urging Israel to proceed with caution had feared.

Bilal al-Sapti, 30, a construction worker in Rafah, said he saw charred bodies in the rubble of the camp and heard people screaming as firefighters tried to put out the flames. “The fire was very strong and had engulfed the whole camp,” he said.

Dr. Marwan al-Hams, who was at the Tal Al Sultan Health Center where many of the victims first arrived, said the majority of the dead and injured he saw were women and children. “Many of the bodies were badly burned, had amputated limbs and were torn to pieces,” he said.

In a statement, Hamas called the Israeli attack on Rafah a “heinous war crime” and called for the “immediate and urgent implementation” of the International Court of Justice’s ruling. The group did not refer to Israeli military claims that two Hamas officials were killed in the attack.

The Israeli military said it had taken a number of measures before the attack to reduce the risk of harm to civilians, including aerial surveillance and the use of munitions classified as accurate. “Based on these measures, it was considered that no harm to uninvolved civilians was to be expected,” it said.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said on Monday that an initial military investigation had shown that the attack or shrapnel in the camp may have unexpectedly ignited a flammable substance. Witnesses reported seeing fierce fires following the attack.

Military drone footage of the attack reviewed by The New York Times showed that the munitions hit an area containing several large hut-like structures and parked cars.

Two Israeli officials said the attack took place outside a designated humanitarian zone intended to provide safe shelter for the evacuees. The officials created a map It was indicated where the impact was in relation to the zone.

The military identified the two targets of the attack as the commander of the Hamas leadership in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Yassin Rabi, and a senior official from the same wing of the group, Khaled Nagar.

The International Court of Justice – a United Nations subsidiary body that considers arguments against allegations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza – called on Israel in an ambiguously worded ruling to immediately cease all actions in Rafah “that could impose on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life likely to result in its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Israeli officials have argued that the 13-2 ruling allows Israel to continue fighting in Rafah because it would not create genocidal conditions. But some of Israel’s allies see the order differently. Even before the latest civilian deaths, Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said the Rafah offensive was “incompatible with international law.”

Late Sunday, Israel’s war cabinet met to discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire that would lead to the release of hostages kidnapped in the Oct. 7 attacks, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the talks.

Diplomats intend to resume negotiations sometime next week, according to three officials briefed on the process. The officials said preliminary talks took place in Paris this weekend.

Reporting was contributed by Hiba Yazbek, Abu Bakr Bashir, Iyad Abuheweila, Patrick Kingsley, Myra Noveck And Johnatan Reiss.