Israel Faces Wave of Condemnation Over Strike on Rafah Camp

Israel faced widespread international condemnation on Monday after an Israeli air strike killed dozens of Palestinians in a camp for displaced civilians in Rafah.

Palestinian officials said at least 45 people had been killed and more than 200 injured after fires and explosions triggered by the strike ripped through the crowded tent city in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, which housed people who had fled fighting elsewhere in Gaza.

The Palestinian deaths — two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “immediately halt” its offensive in the southern Gaza city — sparked a wave of international criticism.

Emmanuel Macron, president of France, said he was “outraged by the Israeli strikes that have killed many displaced persons in Rafah”.

“These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire,” he wrote on X.

Italy’s defence minister Guido Crosetto said “the Palestinian people are being squeezed without regard for the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas”. He added: “This can no longer be justified.”

A spokesperson for the US National Security Council said “devastating images” following the Israeli strike in Rafah were “heartbreaking”.

Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, said on X: “We are horrified by strikes that killed Palestinian civilians in Rafah.”

Arab nations, including Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, condemned the Israeli strike. Qatar warned it could hinder attempts to broker a ceasefire deal in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.

Egypt accused Israel of “targeting unarmed civilians”, describing the strike as a “blatant breach” of international humanitarian law.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said there were “reports of . . . children and women among those killed” in the “horrifying” incident.

“Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that,” it added.

European diplomats demanded Israel comply with the ICJ order following the strike in Rafah.

“I condemn this [attack] in the strongest terms. It proves that there is no safe place in Gaza,” EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Borrell said ministers were “horrified” by Israel’s reaction to the ICJ ruling, adding “we have seen an increase of military activities, an increase in the bombing, and an increase in the casualties of civilian people”.

According to Palestinian officials, Israel’s assault in Gaza has killed 36,000 people, displaced 1.7mn of its 2.3mn citizens and reduced most of the enclave to uninhabitable rubble.

Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack on the Jewish state, in which militants killed 1,200 people, and took 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.

Egypt said on Monday one of its border guards had been killed at the Rafah crossing with Gaza, after reports of an exchange of fire between Egyptian and Israeli forces.

Israel confirmed a “shooting incident” had taken place on the Egyptian border, adding it was “under review”.

The ICJ on Friday ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.

“Unhappily, what we have seen in the immediate hours is that Israel has continued the military action that it has been asked to stop,” Borrell said.