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SvennoJ on 28 May 2024
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UN aid chief slams Netanyahu’s claim of mistake in Rafah

Martin Griffiths has responded to Netanyahu’s claim that Israel’s deadly attack on displaced Palestinians in Rafah was the result of a “tragic mistake”.

“Whether the attack was a war crime or a ‘tragic mistake’, for the people of Gaza, there is no debate. What happened last night was the latest – and possibly most cruel – abomination,” Griffiths said in a statement.

“To call it ‘a mistake’ is a message that means nothing for those killed, those grieving, and those trying to save lives.”



Bodies of father, child killed in Rafah attack ‘burned and charred’, could not be separated

Javed Ali, the director of emergency response in Gaza for International Medical Corps, described the horrific scenes as the dying and wounded were brought for treatment following the Israeli attack on a tent camp for civilians sheltering in Rafah that killed 45 people.

“With this loud air strike that we heard, we just rushed to the hospital and in about five minutes or so after arrival we started seeing ambulances coming in. I think in total we had about 75 patients. Out of those 75, 25 were really critical,” Ali said in a video interview.

“I saw the dead body of a father who was basically holding his child perhaps around three years of age. They were burned and charred. We couldn’t separate them. So we had to put both of them together in a body bag,” he said.

“That was very, very hard.”

Colombian president says ‘powerful democracies’ compromised, unable to oppose Israel

Gustavo Petro said in a post on social media that “so-called powerful” democratic countries were unable to oppose Israel’s war on Gaza because “many owners of banks and capital funds belong to people who support the massacre”.

Petro said the inaction of such states “endangers not only the existence of the Palestinian people but the very existence of democracy and humanity”.

“Power in geopolitics today is nothing more than accumulated money and war planes,” he said, “hopefully tomorrow, it will be accumulated life”.

Colombia’s leader has been an outspoken critic of Israel and its war on Gaza, ordering last week that a Colombian embassy be opened in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank following the announcement that Bogota would sever diplomatic ties with Israel.

 

More than 1 million displaced in 20 days as fighting rages across Gaza

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that more than one million people have been displaced in the south and north of the Gaza Strip since May 6.

Heavy fighting is taking place in the Jabalia refugee camp south of Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian territory, as well as in the north of the Nuseirat area in central Gaza, and eastern Deir el-Balah, also in the central area, and in eastern and central areas of Rafah in Gaza’s south.

Due to Israel’s enforced closure of Gaza’s borders, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reports that its health centres have not received medical supplies in 12 days, particularly affecting stocks of antibiotics for children and antiepileptic drugs, OCHA says in its latest situation report.

“Over five per cent of Gaza’s population has been either killed, injured, or is missing. At least 3,000 women are estimated to be widowed, 10,000 children orphaned, 17,000 children left unaccompanied or separated, and more than one million people have lost their homes,” OCHA states.

 

OIC tells UNSC to ‘assume responsibilities’ after Rafah ‘massacre’

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has described Israel’s deadly attack on a tent camp for displaced people in Rafah as a “heinous massacre”, which it considers an act of “state-organised terrorism”.

The OIC – the world’s second largest intergovernmental body after the UN – said those responsible for the “war crime” attack on the camp in Rafah must be held to account and face international criminal law.

“The Secretary-General held the Israeli occupation accountable for the consequences of its crimes, terrorist practices, and brutal attacks against the Palestinian people, which are inconsistent with all human values,” OIC, representing 57 member states, said in a statement.

“The OIC renewed its call on the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to assume its responsibilities in compelling Israel, to implement the orders of the International Court of Justice to stop this Israeli aggression immediately,” it said.