Rafah: Israeli strikes killed 35 Palestinians and injured dozens in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Sunday. The number was given out by Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials. Rafah houses Palestinians who fled the northern part since Israel’s counterattack against Hamas for the October 7 attack in 2023.
In a post on X Israeli defence forces said that it struck a compound in Rafah that was housing “significant Hamas terrorists” and was carried out with “precise munitions and based on precise intelligence”. It further claimed that the strikes killed Hamas’s chief of staff for the West Bank and another senior official of the Palestinian Islamist group.
According to a report from Reuters, rocket sirens blared over the center portion of the Jewish Nation, and Hamas claimed to have launched a volley of rockets at Israel’s Tel Aviv for the first time in months. This led to the strikes. Hamas called on Palestinians to rise and protest the massacre by the Israeli Army after Israeli bombings in Rafah.
“In light of the horrific Zionist massacre this evening committed by the criminal occupation army against the tents of the displacedâ€æ we call on the masses of our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the occupied territories and abroad to rise up and march angrily against the ongoing Zionist massacre against our people in the sector,” the group said, according to Times of Israel.
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told the Times Of Israel that the US President Biden led administration is following the situation regarding Israeli airstrikes on displaced people’s camp in Rafah. “We’re aware of the reports about the incident in Rafah and are gathering more information,” the spokesperson added.
The Israeli army said that the strikes took out Yassin Rabia, Hamas’s chief of staff for the West Bank and Khaled Najjar, a senior member of the Palestinian group. Rabia was “involved in the transfer of funds for terror purposes and directed attacks by Hamas operatives” in the West Bank, according to the IDF. Additionally, he participated in several fatal attacks in 2001 and 2002 that resulted in the deaths of Israeli soldiers. According to the IDF, Najjar also carried out attacks between 2001 and 2003 that resulted in the deaths of civilians and the injuries or deaths of troops.
The Israeli strikes in Rafah came two days after the United Nations’ top court the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza. The ruling came in support of South Africa’s application last week that sought several measures against Israel. The court said that it considers the humanitarian situation in Rafah disastrous.
For weeks, negotiations between Israel and Hamas to end hostilities in Gaza have been on hold. Following discussions between US and Israeli intelligence agents and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar showed some indications of improvement in this area. A person with knowledge of the situation told Reuters that new ideas from Egyptian and Qatari mediators will serve as the basis for the discussions to resume, with “active US involvement”.
