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SvennoJ on 28 May 2024
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One million people forced to flee from Rafah: UNRWA chief

Philippe Lazzarini provided the latest update about the situation in the southern Gaza city.

One million people in Rafah have been forced to flee over the past three weeks.

“Heavy bombardment continued overnight in the area including in Tal Al Sultan where the UN main offices in Gaza are. Most of our staff could not make it to work. They are packing up and moving. They are terrified.”

Moreover, he said, the UN organisation is running out of basic medicine and medical supplies.



What happened when Israel attacked Rafah?

Thirteen out of 21 people killed by Israel in an air raid on the so-called “safe area” of al-Mawasi were women and girls.

This was the second attack since Sunday, which killed 45 people and wounded more than 200 others. Many shelters burst into flames with their occupants still inside.

Israel targets western Rafah as forces expand ground operation

Shelling hit Rafah’s western Tal as-Sultan district, killing at least 16 people, the Palestinian civil defence and the Palestine Red Crescent Society say.

Seven of the dead were in tents next to a United Nations facility about 200 metres (656 feet) from the site of Sunday night’s air strikes and deadly fire.

“It was a night of horror,” said Abdel-Rahman Abu Ismail, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Tal as-Sultan since December. He said he heard “constant sounds” of explosions overnight and into Tuesday, with fighter jets and drones flying over the area.

Abu Ismail said it reminded him of the Israeli invasion of his neighbourhood of Shujayea in Gaza City, where Israel launched a heavy bombing campaign before sending in ground forces in late 2023. “We saw this before,” he said.


Israel forces ‘invading deeper’ into Gaza

Yesterday Israeli forces and tanks were stationed on Philadelphi corridor, al-Zaroub Hill, around the Kuwaiti Hospital and al-Awda roundabout. These areas are in the heart of Rafah. There are people who were trapped in areas I mentioned and it was hard for them to evacuate.

People were shot at with Israeli quadcopters as they tried to evacuate. Palestinians are telling us that they suddenly found Israeli tanks surrounding those places and they did not have any way to get out.

So, Israeli forces are invading deeper into Rafah. It’s not only the ground invasion, but also the artillery shelling and air strikes.


The marker is on the Kuwaiti Hospital, al-Awda roundabout is a little North-West of al-Awda Mosque



US wants to see more dead and dying civilians, keeps stalling and deflecting

US says Israel Rafah assault still ‘limited’ after deadly bombing

The United States says it still considers Israel’s assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah to be “limited in scope” despite attacks that killed at least 70 people in displacement camps over the past three days.

“Right now it is still our assessment that what is happening in Rafah, what the [Israeli military] are doing, it is limited in scope,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.

US President Joe Biden is not turning a “blind eye” to the deaths in Israel’s strike on Rafah over the weekend but has no plans to change policy yet.

“This is not something that we’ve turned a blind eye to, nor is it something we’ve ignored or neglected,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. He had been asked “how many charred corpses” it would take for Biden to change course on support for Israel.

At the same time, Kirby said he had “no policy changes to speak to” following Sunday’s strike in which 45 people were killed as a blaze tore through a camp for displaced people, adding that the incident “just happened”.

The comments come after Israeli tanks were seen in the heart of Rafah city, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering with no safe place to go.

 

‘As much an American genocide as it is an Israeli genocide’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has condemned the US government for continuing to stand by Israel after the attack on displaced Palestinians in Rafah killed at least 45 people.

“Day after day, massacre after massacre, and the Biden administration continues to ship the bombs to the far-right, openly genocidal Israeli government that it uses to slaughter Palestinian children, women, medical personnel, journalists, international aid workers, and the sick and elderly, and continues to shield Israel from international accountability,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director.

“This genocidal brutality, which is being exposed daily by piles of charred and dismembered Palestinian civilians, must stop. Sadly, because of President Biden’s insistence on sending more bombs to enable Netanyahu’s war crimes in Rafah, this is now as much an American genocide as it is an Israeli genocide.”