CAIRO, May 28 (Reuters) – Israel’s military denied striking a tent camp west of Rafah on Tuesday after Gaza health authorities said Israeli tank shelling had killed at least 21 people there, in an area Israel has designated a civilian evacuation zone.
Earlier, defying an appeal from the International Court of Justice, Israeli tanks advanced to the heart of Rafah for the first time after a night of heavy bombardment, while Spain, Ireland and Norway officialy recognised a Palestinian state, a move that further deepened Israel’s international isolation.
Thirteen out of 21 people killed by Israel in an air strike on the so-called “safe area” of al-Mawasi were civilian women and girls, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reported on Tuesday.
This was the second attack since Sunday, with a horrifying strike on Sunday night setting displaced people’s shelters ablaze not too far from Tuesday’s strike.
The tent camps stretch more than 16 kilometers (10 miles) along Gaza’s coast, filling the beach and sprawling into empty lots, fields and streets. Families dig trenches to use as toilets. Fathers search for food and water. Children dig through garbage and wrecked buildings for wood or cardboard for their mothers to burn for cooking.
Over the past three weeks, Israel’s offensive in Rafah has sent nearly a million Palestinians fleeing the southern Gaza city. Most have already been displaced multiple times during Israel’s nearly 8-month-old war in Gaza, which is aimed at destroying Hamas but has devastated the territory and caused what the United Nations says is a near-famine.
The situation has been worsened by a plunge in the amount of food, fuel and other supplies reaching the U.N. and other aid groups to distribute to the population. Palestinians, who relied in part on humanitarian aid even before the war, have largely been on their own to find the basics for survival.
“The situation is tragic. You have 20 people in the tent, with no clean water, no electricity. We have nothing,” said Mohammad Abu Radwan, a schoolteacher with his wife, six children and other extended family.
The world had watched, aghast, on Monday as displaced Palestinians were forced to dig through smouldering remains with their bare hands – looking for bodies, or injured people, or in some cases, a few scraps of food they could salvage to keep their families going a bit longer.
When and where was this attack?
The attack happened at night on May 26.
It was inflicted on an encampment of makeshift shelters just north of Rafah city, in an area called Tal as-Sultan
It came after United States President Joe Biden said a “major offensive” by Israel on Rafah would be a red line.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah but said it did not believe such an operation was under way.
Describing the U.S. view of what would constitute a major offensive in Rafah, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that it would involve “large numbers of troops in columns and formations in some sort of coordinated maneuver against multiple targets on the ground.”
