A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the Israeli attack on Tal as-Sultan as a “massacre that exceeds all boundaries”, according to the Wafa news agency.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh “stressed the urgent need for an intervention to stop the crimes committed against the Palestinian people immediately” and said the “heinous massacre” is a challenge to international orders, including “the lucid and candid ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to cease its military offensive against the city of Rafah and provide protection to the Palestinian people”.

Abu Rudeineh said he held the administration of US President Biden responsible for Israeli crimes and demanded that Washington “compel Israel to stop the madness and genocide it is committing in Gaza”.

MSF says it is “horrified” by Israeli’s attack on the camp for displaced Palestinians in Tal as-Sultan and that the “deadly event” shows once again that nowhere is safe in Gaza.

The medical charity said more than 15 dead bodies and dozens of wounded people were brought to a trauma stabilisation point that it supports in Gaza.

It reiterated its call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire.

Aida Touma-Sliman, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a legislator in the Israeli Knesset, has denounced the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for its “madness and vindictiveness” in the wake of the latest attack on Rafah.

“Hundreds killed and wounded in the last hour in Rafah. This time the bombings fell in a dense area of displaced residents that Israel declared a safe area. We were warned that entering Rafah would lead to another heavy humanitarian disaster,” she said in a post on X.

“The clear demands of the International Criminal Court of Justice that [Israel] stop any attacks that would harm an innocent civilian population is being trampled on,” she added. “This bloody government refuses to obey all orders of the tribunal, and is taking the madness and vindictiveness to a new criminal level.”

Israeli forces are continuing their attacks across the Gaza Strip, even as outrage grows over the bombing that killed 40 people in Rafah.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that at least five Palestinians were killed and several others wounded after Israeli jets bombed the home of the al-Batran family in the Zarqa area, north of Gaza City.

The victims included a child and her pregnant mother.

There was also another Israeli attack on the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip which killed at least one Palestinian, AJA reported.

Palestinians in Jabalia in northern Gaza are scrambling to rescue people trapped under the rubble after an Israeli attack levelled a five-storey house belonging to the Khalla family on Sunday.

At least 12 people were killed in the bombing.

An elderly relative of the victims recounted the attack to Al Jazeera.

He said: “It was around noon – lunch – people were sitting in their homes safe and sound, we heard the sound of a massive explosion that shook the area and took the entire block down. People rushed to the area and we were surprised to see that it was the house of my brother.

“The house was completely destroyed with everyone inside. People rushed to the area and tried to save anyone they could save. Others were killed.

“We are no strangers to martyrdom. This is the fifth time this family has been targeted, 100 of them have died so far, all women and children. Our brothers did everything in their power to pull people from the rubble. May God grant them safety.”

Hundreds of Palestinians have taken to the streets in the occupied West Bank and in the Baqa’a refugee camp in Jordan to protest Israel’s latest attack on a camp for displaced people in Rafah, according to local media.

The protests in the West Bank took place in the cities of Jenin, Ramallah and Tulkarem, the Wafa news agency reported.

A 14-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank has died of critical wounds sustained during the attack, according to the Wafa news agency.

Majd Shaher Arameen was shot near the town of Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron, on Sunday evening, Wafa reported.

The agency, citing security sources, said Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinian ambulance crews from reaching the boy and left him bleeding on the ground after shooting him.

Israeli troops continued raiding areas across the West Bank overnight, blowing up several vehicles in the village of Kafr Dan, northwest of the city of Jenin, the Wafa news agency reported.

The soldiers also fought with Palestinians and fired live bullets, tear gas and sound bombs, Wafa said, citing local sources. There was no immediate report of casualties.

Wafa also reported confrontations between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, and a raid on a mosque in the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem. A Palestinian official in Husan told Wafa that Israeli officials laid siege to the mosque and fired tear gas at worshippers inside, causing several people to suffocate.

Amnesty International is urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate three Israeli attacks that killed 44 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children, in the Gaza Strip in April.

The attacks included a strike that killed children playing foosball at the Maghazi refugee camp on April 16, and two strikes on residential buildings in Rafah on April 19 and 20, the rights group said.

In all three cases, there was no evidence of military targets in or around the affected locations and no indication of prior warning, it said.

“Our findings offer crucial evidence of unlawful attacks by the Israeli military as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applies for arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As the Israeli military continues to escalate its ground incursion in Rafah, these cases also illustrate the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns.

“The cases documented here illustrate a clear pattern of attacks over the past seven months in which the Israeli military has flouted international law, killing Palestinian civilians with total impunity and displaying a callous disregard for human lives.”

Politicians, journalists and doctors are taking to X to express their outrage and grief at Israel’s latest attack on a tent camp for displaced people in Rafah.

The attack ripped victims, including a child, to shreds and caused a huge blaze, burning people alive in their tents, according to witnesses and videos posted online.

Here’s some of the reaction:

Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, wrote: “Days after the ICJ orders Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, the Israeli Government bombs displaced people living in tents. Innocent men, women & children dismembered and burnt alive. Bear witness to the images and ask yourself, are you on the right side of history?”

Days after the ICJ orders Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, the Israeli Government bombs displaced people living in tents. Innocent men, women & children dismembered and burnt alive.

Bear witness to the images and ask yourself, are you on the right side of history? https://t.co/2RzplcBK0t

— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) May 26, 2024

Jagmeet Singh, a Canadian legislator and leader of the New Democratic Party, wrote: “Images of the IDFs airstrike hitting a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah are horrifying. Images so terrible I won’t share them. The world is failing the people of Gaza. Canada is failing the people of Gaza.”

Images of the IDFs airstrike hitting a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah are horrifying.

Images so terrible I won’t share them.

The world is failing the people of Gaza.

Canada is failing the people of Gaza.

We must do everything we can to stop this.#CeasefireNOW

— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) May 27, 2024

Mehdi Hassan, a US journalist, wrote: “There are videos coming out of Rafah today of beheaded babies. Actual beheaded babies that you can see for yourselves – not the beheaded babies that the Israeli authorities invented to justify their genocidal assault, or the ones that Biden falsely claimed to have seen pix of.”

There are videos coming out of Rafah today of beheaded babies.

Actual beheaded babies that you can see for yourselves - not the beheaded babies that the Israeli authorities invented to justify their genocidal assault, or the ones that Biden falsely claimed to have seen pix of.

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 26, 2024

Yipeng Ge, a Canadian doctor, wrote: “There is seriously something dystopian about this moment when Rafah is on fire being massacred and Palestinian healthcare is beyond overwhelmed after systematic and targeted sieges on hospitals […] While medical institutions in Canada are still seriously talking about how watermelons are considered offensive.”

There is seriously something dystopian about this moment when Rafah is on fire being massacred and Palestinian healthcare is beyond overwhelmed after systematic and targeted sieges on hospitals.

While medical institutions in Canada are still seriously talking about how…

— Yipeng Ge 葛义朋 (@yipengGe) May 27, 2024

Palestinians search charred remains of Rafah tent camp

_{People look at the burned temporary shelters in a camp near Rafah the morning after an Israeli army attack caused a fire, killing at least 40 people, according to Gaza officials}

_{Displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the Tal as-Sultan area near Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip}

_{The attack on the area previously declared a ‘safe zone’ by Israeli authorities came days after the ICJ ordered them to end military activities in the city}

The media rights group, also known as RSF, says its new petition at the International Criminal Court (ICC) details eight new cases of Palestinian journalists killed “in the course of their work” between December 20 and May 20, and one case of a journalist who was wounded.

These include journalists Mustapha Thuraya and Hamza al-Dahdouh, who were killed in an Israeli drone attack on their vehicle on January 7, the group said.

The RSF has called on the ICC prosecutor to investigate the killing of more than 100 journalists by Israel since October.

Antoine Bernard, RSF’s advocacy and assistance director, said the organisation would continue to work to hold those responsible for killing journalists accountable “in solidarity with Gaza’s reporters”.




The expected headlines after another especially heinous atrocity

Israel pushing ahead with military action despite ICJ order: EU foreign policy chief

Continued attacks on Rafah are ‘in breach of international humanitarian law’: Norway’s FM

Ireland’s FM condemns Rafah camp attack

ActionAid condemns ‘inhumane, barbaric’ attack on Rafah camp

Spain to ask EU partners to back ICJ over Israel

‘Palestinian children should wake up feeling excited to go to school and play with their friends’: Corbyn

Rafah bombing is the ‘crime of crimes’: Former UNRWA spokesperson

_{Bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack on an area designated for displaced people in Rafah}

Ireland’s foreign minister Micheal Martin says despite the international community – including the EU – having discussed support for a two-state solution for decades, “we are no nearer to actually getting to that desired end state”.

Speaking at a media conference in Brussels with his Spanish and Norwegian counterparts, he said some have framed their decision to recognise the state of Palestine as a “reward for terror”, adding, “nothing could be further from the truth”.

“We have recognised both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine precisely because we want to see a future of normalised relations between the two peoples” he continued.

He said his country seeks a solution in which occupation, terrorism, dispossession and displacement, “have no role” and are “replaced by a political framework in which the parties can pursue their political aims”.

“There can be no military solution to this conflict. And I refute absolutely any group using violence or terrorism to try and eliminate the State of Israel or to eliminate the State of Palestine as an idea or as a reality,” he said.

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide says his country recognises the state of Palestine “because it’s the right thing to do, but even more importantly because it’s the right time to do it”.

Speaking at a news conference in Brussels with his Spanish and Irish counterparts, he said, “For many years, we and so many other countries were expecting to recognise at the end of a peace process.

“But then a few years ago, we realised that we actually needed to think outside the box”, he said, adding that recognition needed to come at a time that sent “a strong signal”.

“Some people might think it sounds paradoxical to talk about Tuesday’s solution [recognition of the state of Palestine] in the midst of war,” he said.

“Right now, we have extreme violence in Gaza. We have Israelis living in fear of terrorism and rocket attacks, and we have settler violence and the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank,” he continued.

“We are now seeing a cycle of violence. This is a low point in the long and sad history of a non-solution to the Israel-Palestine problem. “I think what we’re giving now is new software. It’s a 2.0 to that vision where earlier recognition of Palestine is one of the several pieces of the big puzzle of how to bring peace to the Middle East,” he said.

Mohammad Elmasry, media studies professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says he is concerned by the language used by the foreign ministers of Ireland, Spain and Norway.

“I was really taken aback by some of the language used. It almost seemed they were adopting the US plan. You could take these from the Antony Blinken and Joe Biden school of international relations. They are talking about the Saudi-Israeli normalisation agreement, which bypasses the Palestinians altogether. It is one reason why we ended up at October 7 [attacks].”

He also pointed at the “both-sideism” in the speeches wherein they condemned the Israeli violence but at the same time also condemned “Palestinian violence and terrorism”. “So, there is a tendency to want to protect yourself against potential criticism.”

Elmasry said the ministers’ emphasis on Saudi-Israeli normalisation and the future of the PA is problematic.

“When they talk about the revitalisation of the Palestinian Authority, this is what the Biden administration keeps referring to. PA is first of all a subcontractor for Israeli occupation and deeply unpopular among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza,” he said.

Elmasry said it was paradoxical that they talked about Palestinians’ self-determination without listening to what they want in terms of leadership.

“And then they talked about the two-state solution, which is an absolute impossibility given that more than 700,000 Israeli settlers live on Palestinian land in more than 200 settlements and outposts, all of which are illegal,” he said.

“The two-state solution was rendered impossible by Israel quite intentionally. So, this is very out of touch. If you are Palestinian listening to this, you might be discouraged by some of the languages.”

He, however, said, in the long run, these steps will help the Palestinian cause.

“I want to be clear, this could be significant as part of a larger programme of pressure that is being applied on Israel. An Israeli diplomat earlier said a diplomatic tsunami is being hurled at Israel. I do think that over the long term this kind of thing, even though it’s symbolic, can be significant,” Elmasry said.

Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib has called the Palestinian Authority a “partner for peace” and expressed readiness to help with efforts to reform the organisation to lead a future Palestinian state.

“Belgium is working for a recognition with rights and freedoms for Palestinians,” she wrote in a post on X after a meeting with PA Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa.

Israel’s top military prosecutor has described Monday’s air strikes on Rafah as “very grave” and said an after-action investigation by the armed forces is under way.

“The details of the incident are still under an investigation, which we are committed to conducting to the fullest extent,” Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi told a conference hosted by the Israel Bar Association.

Gaza officials say 40 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on a camp housing displaced Palestinians near Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Italy says Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza were no longer justifiable in one of the strongest criticisms Rome has made so far against Israel’s war on the enclave.

“There is an increasingly difficult situation in which the Palestinian people are being squeezed without regard for the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas, and this can no longer be justified,” Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told the SkyTG 24 broadcaster.

“We are watching the situation with despair.”

Crosetto said Italy agreed in principle with the Israeli response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 but added that a difference had to be made between the group and the Palestinian people.

On Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani met Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Rome, reiterating their support for a ceasefire and urging Hamas to release Israeli captives.

The attack on displaced Palestinians in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan area has been one of the deadliest since the start of the war on Gaza, with the heavy bombs used on the shelters ripping victims to shreds.

“We retrieved a large number of child martyrs from the Israeli bombardment, including a child without a head and children whose bodies have turned into fragments,” a Palestinian paramedic told Anadolu.

Mohammad al-Mughayyir, a senior official at the civil defence agency, told AFP: “We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs … We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly.”

The Government Media Office in Gaza said earlier today that US-made 2,000-pound bombs were used during the attack – which the Israeli military claims was carried out in accordance with international law.

Witnesses recounted the “massacre” in the camp in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan area.

Majed al-Attar, a displaced person from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, said he lost five members of his family.

“We were sitting in tents, and suddenly the camp was bombed. I lost five people from my family, all of whom were completely burned, among the people who killed pregnant women. Every time they told us that this area was safe until we were bombed,” he said.

Mahmoud al-Attar, a displaced person from east Rafah, said: “They told us that this area is safe. We left the area east of Rafah to the west of the city, thinking that there is safety, but now there is no safe place in Gaza. There are massacres everywhere.”

“We hope that the international community will stand with us to stop this war, I lost my brother and every day I lose one, why all these losses,” he said. “We are living this massacre a day after the decision of the International Criminal Court to demand that Israel stop the operation in Rafah.”

The US-based Jewish advocacy group says attention must now be directed towards the overnight “massacre” committed in Rafah by the Israeli military.

“We will never forget the images emerging from Rafah tonight. Human beings, including babies, were burned alive and torn apart. This genocide must end, it must end now,” Jewish Voice for Peace said in a statement.

“We hold the US government, in addition to the Israeli government, responsible for the slaughter of over 36,000 Palestinians, for the siege and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, and for mass destruction of infrastructure and land. We demand an end to all US funding to the Israeli military now. People of conscience throughout the world are calling for an end to genocide.”

The Health Ministry in Gaza says 45 people have been killed in the Israeli attack on the displaced in Rafah, including 23 women, children and elderly, with 249 wounded.

The ministry added that at least 36,050 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war and 81,026 have been injured.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz says in a post on X that he has instructed the Foreign Ministry to send a diplomatic note to the Spanish embassy in Israel.

The note states that the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem is prohibited “from conducting consular activities or providing consular services to residents of the Palestinian Authority”.

Another white wash 'investigation'

Israeli army investigates deaths of Gaza war detainees

Israel getting ready to extend the war into Lebanon in case they have to stop in Gaza... War cabinet shall prevail.

The Israeli military says its 146th Division and an armoured brigade have held more exercises to simulate military operations inside Lebanon.

Soldiers drilled field combat scenarios and learned about the potential challenges of invading the neighbouring country, according to the military, which said the aim was to closely simulate “fighting in the depths of Lebanon”.

The Israeli military also claimed new air strikes against Hezbollah positions, claiming to hit launchers that had directed an attack on Malkiya earlier on Monday. It also confirmed that an Israeli drone crashed inside Lebanese territory this morning, saying an investigation has been launched to determine the cause.

The Israeli military has put out a short statement that confirms a “shooting incident on the Egyptian border” took place earlier in the day. It says the issue is being investigated and “a dialogue is taking place with the Egyptian side”.

Reports from Israeli media earlier suggested that one Egyptian soldier was killed and others wounded at the Rafah border crossing but no harm came to Israeli soldiers.

An Egyptian military spokesman statement says Egyptian forces are carrying out an investigation into a shooting on the Rafah border that led to one personnel killed.

It was initially reported by Israeli media that there had been cross-border fire that was started from the Egyptian side toward Israeli soldiers, who responded. Then, that was retracted through an order by the Israeli military, but was again allowed to be reported.

This could further complicate the situation. Even as Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel, it’s actually been refusing, for example, to open its side of the border to aid trucks in protest to Israel taking over the Rafah crossing.

Are we going to see this escalate further militarily? Highly doubtful, but diplomatically this could complicate things since Egypt is also a mediator in ceasefire talks.