The Rafah tragedy: the worst day of the war, and it’s consequences,” general Tomer-Yerushalmi told the Bar Association
“Naturally, in a war of such scope and intensity, complex incidents also occur,” General Tomer-Yerushalmi said in a speech to the Israeli Bar Association. Last night’s incident in the town of Rafah is very serious. She stated the military regretted any harm to uninvolved civilians during the war.
Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the Israeli military’s top legal official, said on Monday that the airstrike was under review. Around 70 criminal investigations were opened by the military police during the war.
“These are very, very tightly packed tents,” he said. “And a fire like this could spread over a huge distance with catastrophic consequences in a very, very short space of time.”
According to the United Nations, more than 600,000 people fled in less than two months after the military announced its offensive, but the area is still densely populated.
Speaking from a house a few miles away from the trauma center, a distance that he said had become too dangerous to cross, Dr. Smith said footage shared by his colleagues at the trauma center of injuries from the strike and the fire were “truly some of the worst that I have seen.”
Dr. James Smith, a British emergency specialist who has worked in Rafah, stated that the attack had killed displaced people who were looking for sanctuary and shelter in tarpaulin tents.
Doctors Without Borders said more than 15 dead people and dozens of wounded in the Rafah strike were brought to a trauma stabilization center that it supports in Tal as Sultan.
Mr. al-Sapti saw people screaming as firefighters tried to extinguish the fire at the strike scene. “The fire was very strong and was all over the camp,” he said. “There was darkness and no electricity.”
Bilal al-Sapti, 30, a construction worker in Rafah, said that shrapnel from the strike tore up the tent where he was staying with his wife and two children, but that his family was uninjured.
Israeli State of the Gaza Strip and Israel’s Campaign for a Stop and Go Back to the People’s Rights: An Israeli–Mexican Perspective
His comments came at a particularly delicate time, just three days after the International Court of Justice appeared to order Israel to immediately halt its offensive in the city and as diplomats were aiming to restart negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas at some point in the next week.
The Red Crescent claims that the strike hit the Tal as Sultan area of Rafah, within the area where the Israeli military had told the Palestinian population to take shelter.
Israel said the strike on Sunday night killed two Hamas officials, but the civilian deaths generated instant condemnation, likely making it harder for Israel to defend its view that the ambiguity of the court order allowed it to continue its campaign in Rafah.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, according to health officials there. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel and more than 240 were taken hostage during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. There are about 120 hostages in Gaza.
There was a huge noise at 6:30 pm yesterday. He told NPR that he heard an explosion and it sounded like an earthquake. I jumped out of the window when I couldn’t get out of the door, but there was one without a head.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel: The “Tracy of a Fatal Accident” at a Camp for Disdisplaced Palestinians in Rafah
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing domestic pressure to negotiate a ceasefire to bring the remaining hostages home. The families of hostages, and others calling for the resignation of Netanyahu, have held weekly protests in Israel. He is being pressured by his hardliners in the government that do not want a complete ceasefire.
Israeli media is reporting that officials say that negotiations are supposed to resume next week. There were some high level discussions in Paris this weekend between the Israeli Mossad’s David Barnea, the U.S. CIA’s William J. Burns and the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahma al-Thani.
With international condemnation mounting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Monday that the killing of dozens of people in a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah was “a tragic accident,” but gave no sign of curbing the Israeli offensive there.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said on Monday that the initial investigation by the military found that the strike may have accidentally caused a fire at the site. Eyewitnesses described intense fires in the aftermath of the strike.
Military drone footage of the attack, reviewed by The New York Times, showed the munition striking an area housing several large cabinlike structures and parked cars.