EU officials have condemned an Israeli air attack on refugee tents in Rafah that killed at least 45 Palestinians, including many children.
Sunday’s strikes — which took place in a camp where displaced Palestinians had been sheltering — come days after the U.N.’s top court ordered Israel to halt its operations in the city of Rafah in Gaza, citing the “immediate risk” to Palestinians. Over half of those killed were women, children and elderly people, local health officials said.
“There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday. “These operations must stop … I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the strike as a “tragic error,” according to newspaper Haaretz.
This is not the first time Israel has attacked an area it had ordered Palestinians to flee to. Rafah, as Gaza’s southernmost city on the border with Egypt, was considered the last refuge.
The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, echoed calls for Israel to halt its operations in Rafah. “Israel continues the military action it has been asked to stop,” he said.
“Both sides don’t respect the rules,” Borrell said, noting that Hamas had fired rockets on Tel Aviv, several of which were intercepted by air defense systems, according to the Israeli military. There have been no reports of injuries resulting from Hamas’ strikes.
“Innocent men, women & children dismembered and burnt alive,” Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s former first minister, posted on X. “Bear witness to the images and ask yourself, are you on the right side of history?”
The air strikes on the refugee camp come as Western military, diplomatic and moral support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is increasingly in question. At least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the eight months since Oct. 7.
Western leaders are increasingly pushing for a ceasefire, calling for unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave and warning Israel from a potential ground assault in Rafah.
According to the U.N., in the last eight months, 85% of Gaza’s population has been forced to flee their homes, resulting in critical shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told Sky TG24 that Israel’s warfare is “no longer justifiable,” pointing out that “with respect to Rafah, all States agreed that Israel had to stop.”
Germany, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters and a key exporter of arms to the country, has also changed its rhetoric, with Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck criticizing Israel for its “its disproportionate approach in the Gaza Strip” for the first time on Saturday.
Israel’s actions were “incompatible with international law,” he said. “It is indeed the case that Israel has crossed the line there and it must not do that.”
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares announced Monday that he will seek official support from the other 26 member states for the International Court of Justice’s ruling and take steps to ensure Israel respects its decisions.
“If Israel continues to pursue against that opinion of the court, we would try to take the right measures to enforce that decision,” Albares said at a news conference in Brussels with his Norwegian and Irish counterparts.
“Yesterday’s bombing is one more day with innocent Palestinian civilians being killed,” he said. This time, he said, the “gravity is even larger” as the ICJ’s rulings are “binding and compulsory for all parties.”
Israel’s top military prosecutor Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi described the air strikes as “very grave” and said an investigation by the armed forces is under way.
Israel is currently facing allegations of genocide at the ICJ, with the court issuing six provisional measures on South Africa’s request. The court has stated that there is a credible risk of genocide against the Palestinian people.
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