25 killed in strikes on camp near Rafah, Gaza ministry says

dw.com/en/25-killed-in-strikes-on-camp-near-rafah-gaza-ministry-says/a-69443993

Deutsche Welle

ConflictsMiddle East

17 hours ago17 hours ago

Officials and witnesses in Gaza said Israeli shelling killed at least 25 people in a camp for displaced Palestinians, with the Red Cross reporting similar deaths and injuries. Israel said it was reviewing the situation.

Witnesses claim Israeli tank fire hit the camp, the IDF says that is not trueImage: Jim Hollander/UPI Photo/Newscom/picture alliance

The Gaza Health Ministry on Friday said at least 25 people had been killed and another 50 injured in what authorities labeled an Israeli attack on a tent camp in Muwasi, near Rafah city, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Health Ministry operates under the control of Hamas officials but the United Nations considers the figures published by the ministry broadly reliable. 

Eyewitnesses said Israeli forces shelled the camp, in an area just outside an Israeli-designated safe zone and where thousands have fled since Israel launched its Rafah offensive in May.

The Israeli military said the incident was under review but that "there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]" inside the humanitarian safe zone. 

Red Cross denounces attack on camps near office

The International Red Cross (ICRC) in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories condemned the strike, saying it landed near its Gaza office and residences.

"This grave security incident is one of several in recent days; previously stray bullets have reached ICRC structures," it said in a statement on the platform X, formerly Twitter.

"We decry these incidents that put the lives of humanitarians and civilians at risk," it said, stressing that parties to the conflict "have an obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects."

The ICRC said that the Red Cross field hospital had registered 22 deaths and 45 injuries from the attack, with reports of additional casualties.

Israel vows to keep fighting despite international criticism over Gaza death toll

Despite months of growing international pressure and tens of thousands of deaths, Israel has vowed to continue its Gaza offensive until Hamas — designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, Germany and others — is wiped out.

International observers have pleaded for an end to the fighting, which started after an October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,200 people and saw some 250 kidnapped.

The Gaza Health Ministry says Israel has killed more than 37,000 people since it launched its retaliatory offensive. The Israeli military claims it is trying to avoid civilian casualties.

More than a million of Gaza's original 2.2 million residents are currently in and around Rafah, seeking shelter from fighting.

The UN and other organizations have called on Israel to pause its offensive, pointing to the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave. 

sdi, js/fb,rm (AP, dpa)

 

"Piles Of Bodies, Blood Everywhere": Red Cross Chief In Rafah Recounts Shelling Horror

ndtv.com/world-news/piles-of-bodies-blood-everywhere-red-cross-chief-in-rafah-recounts-shelling-horror-5949077

Agence France-PresseJune 23, 2024

Many of the wounded were taken by ambulance to a nearby Red Cross field hospital

Rafah:

A senior Red Cross official in Gaza on Saturday told reporters of the horrific scenes after an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip.

It was around 3:30 pm when three explosions rocked the walls of the Red Cross compound in Gaza on Friday, William Schomburg, the local chief for the ICRC told reporters in Geneva via video link.

Then came the "flood of wounded people" seeking help, said the international charity's chief in Rafah.

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"There were piles of dead bodies, blood everywhere," he added. 

Twenty-two people were killed in shelling that lightly damaged the outside walls of the compound where the Red Cross has been operating.

It is located just south of a humanitarian zone identified by the Israeli army in the Palestinian territory.

"All of our buildings are very well known to all parties to the conflict," Schomburg said.

Refusing to speculate on the source of the shelling, he said: "We're not here to lay blame.

"But of course, this incident is one of several near misses that we have had... and we as the ICRC cannot operate like this."

'Pools of blood'

Many of the wounded were taken by ambulance to a nearby Red Cross field hospital for operations. Some did not survive.

No Red Cross employees were killed, Schomburg said, but two children of staff members required treatment for injuries sustained in the blasts.

It is not the first time Red Cross facilities have been damaged during the more than eight months of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants who control the Gaza Strip.

Schomburg said that recovering from the trauma of Friday's strike would not be easy.

"Around the compound on the street, there were pools of blood, there were bodies strewn across the ground," he said.

"We literally found body parts scattered in different areas, including within the compound.

"Frankly, it's like nothing I've ever seen before. The scale of the suffering in such a short period of time was really very shocking for the team."

'Overwhelming' fear

The shelling came as Israel has stepped up its strikes in the Gaza Strip since war broke out after the October 7 attack by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 41 are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,551 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza's health ministry said on Saturday.

An Israel Defense Forces statement on Saturday said an initial inquiry found "there was no direct attack carried out by the IDF against a Red Cross facility".

But the incident was still under review and "findings will be presented to our international partners".

The Red Cross office is surrounded by a camp where several families of ICRC staff members live in tents. Schomburg said it was a "miracle" that none were severely injured. 

Nonetheless "there was an overwhelming sense of fear amongst people that were clearly panicked and very desperate with nowhere to go", he added.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians have been sheltering in tents in the coastal Al-Mawasi area since the outbreak of the fighting, prompting the recognition of the humanitarian zone by Israeli authorities.

"Our office here in Rafah, like all of our buildings and facilities, are all marked with the Red Cross emblem and are known by all parties," Schomburg said.

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"So how to explain the strikes we experienced yesterday? I think you will have to ask the parties involved in this conflict, and not us."

Post a comment (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

 

Israeli air strikes on Gaza City kill dozens, Hamas says

bbc.com/news/articles/ckddq2y58g1o

BBC News

Israeli strikes on Gaza City kill dozens, Hamas says

11 hours ago

Buildings destroyed after deadly strike in Gaza

Two Israeli air strikes on buildings in Gaza City have killed at least 38 people and injured many more, Hamas says.

The Israeli military said warplanes had struck Hamas military infrastructure sites and it would provide more details later.

A spokesman for Gaza's civil defence said a residential block in the al-Shati area, one of Gaza's historic refugee camps, was hit several times. The other strike targeted houses in the al-Tuffah district, the Hamas-run government media office said.

Footage showed people carrying away the wounded and searching for survivors in the wreckage as dust filled the streets.

Earlier reports put the estimated death toll at 42.

Israeli media reported that the air strikes may have been targeting a senior Hamas official.

Hussein Muhaisen, a civil defence spokesman in Gaza City, told AFP that the impact from the strikes was "like an earthquake".

"The whole area was targeted, as you see homes were destroyed. There are still families under the rubble," he said.

"Some of the injured were transferred to the Baptist Hospital, and now we are rescuing others from under the rubble, and the situation is very, very difficult due to the lack of tools and fuel for ambulances."

Meanwhile the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the EU condemned Friday's shelling of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) offices in Gaza, which the ICRC said had killed 22 people who had sought shelter around its compound.

Mr Borrell called for an independent investigation and for those responsible to be held accountable.

On Saturday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an initial inquiry into the shooting in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza found there was "no direct attack carried out by the IDF against a Red Cross facility".

It said the incident would be "quickly examined" and the findings presented.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people - mostly civilians - were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 37,551 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it had reportedly identified 14,680 children, women and elderly people among the dead by the end of April.

Reuters

Footage showed rescuers carrying away the wounded and searching for survivors in the wreckage as dust filled the streets

Israel-Gaza war

Israel

Gaza

 

At least 42 killed in Israeli attack on Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-israel-attack-al-shati-refugee-camp-al-tuffah-neighborhood-israel-gaza-war/articleshow/111190233.cms

TOI World Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Updated: Jun 22, 2024, 18:11 IST

(File Image, AP photo)

NEW DELHI: At least 42 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza's Al-Tuffah neighborhood and Al-Shati refugee camp, Reuters reported citing the director of the Hamas-run government media office.

Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run government media office, reported that an Israeli strike on houses in Al-Shati refugee camps, killed 24 individuals.

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An additional 18 Palestinians lost their lives when houses in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood were targeted.

The Israeli military issued a concise statement, which read: "A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City."

In a statement, Hamas said the attacks were aimed at civilians and vowed, "the occupation and its Nazi leaders will pay the price for their violations against our people."

According to the Reuters, after the attack, the place left with the demolished houses, shattered walls, and debris and dust covering the street in Shati refugee camp.

Israel's ground and air offensive in Gaza was sparked when Hamas-led militants invaded southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

The campaign has devastated Gaza, claimed the lives of more than 37,400 people, including 101 in the last 24 hours, as reported by Palestinian health authorities, and rendered nearly the entire population homeless and impoverished.

After more than eight months of conflict, Israel's advance is currently centered on the two remaining areas it had not yet captured: Rafah in southern Gaza and the region surrounding Deir al-Balah in the center.

According to residents, Israeli tanks have recently deepened their incursion into western and northern Rafah areas. On Saturday, Israeli forces conducted aerial and ground bombardments in several areas, compelling many families residing in humanitarian-designated zones to flee northward.

The Israeli military stated that forces persisted with "precise, intelligence-based" targeted operations in Rafah, eliminating numerous Palestinian gunmen and dismantling military infrastructure.

On Friday, the Gaza health ministry reported that at least 25 Palestinians were killed and 50 wounded in Mawasi, western Rafah. Palestinians claimed that a tank shell struck a tent sheltering displaced families.

The Israeli military said the incident is under review, stating, "An initial inquiry conducted suggests that there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF in the Humanitarian Area in Al-Mawasi."

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