Israeli military said the strike was targeted at a Hamas compound and killed two of their senior leaders. Photo: Reuters
An Israeli airstrike on a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza, killed at least 45 people on Sunday night and wounded 249, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday. The Israeli military said the strike was aimed at a Hamas compound.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it was looking into reports that “several civilians in the area were harmed” by the airstrike and a subsequent fire. A follow-up statement said the strike had killed two Hamas leaders. A legal official with the military said Monday that the strike was under review.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that its ambulance crews had taken a “large” number of victims to the Tal as Sultan clinic and field hospitals in Rafah, where few functioning hospitals remain, and that “numerous” people had been trapped in fires at the site of the strikes.
The strike hit the Tal as Sultan area of Rafah, within what the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone, where it had told Palestinian civilians to go for shelter ahead of its ground offensive in Rafah, the Red Crescent said.
Israel’s assault on Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, has come under intense scrutiny, particularly after the International Court of Justice on Friday ordered Israel to “immediately” halt the military offensive there. Though the court has few effective means of enforcing its order, it puts more pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rein in its attacks in Gaza and reduce civilian casualties.
Bilal al-Sapti, 30, a construction worker in Rafah, said that shrapnel from the strike tore up the tent where he was staying with his wife and two children, but that his family was uninjured.
“What kind of a tent will protect us from missiles and shrapnel?” he said.
Mr. al-Sapti said that at the scene of the strike he saw charred bodies and people screaming as firefighters tried to put out the flames. “The fire was very strong and was all over the camp,” he said. “There was darkness and no electricity.”
Doctors Without Borders said more than 15 dead people and dozens of wounded in the Rafah strike were brought to a trauma stabilization center that it supports in Tal as Sultan.
Dr. James Smith, a British emergency specialist in Rafah who has been working at that center, said the attack had killed displaced people who were “seeking some degree of sanctuary and shelter in tarpaulin tents.”
Speaking from a house a few miles away from the trauma center, a distance that he said had become too dangerous to cross, Dr. Smith said footage shared by his colleagues at the trauma center of injuries from the strike and the fire were “truly some of the worst that I have seen.”
Rescue efforts to safe people being affected by the Israeli strike. Photo: Reuters.
Though the United Nations estimates that more than 800,000 people fled Rafah in a matter of weeks after the Israeli military announced its offensive, the area remains densely populated, Dr. Smith said.
“These are very, very tightly packed tents,” he said. “And a fire like this could spread over a huge distance with catastrophic consequences in a very, very short space of time.”
The attack was “one of the most horrific things that I have seen or heard of in all of the weeks that I’ve been working in Gaza,” he added.
Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the Israeli military’s top legal official, said on Monday that the airstrike was under review. She said the military police had opened around 70 criminal investigations into potential misconduct during the war.
“Naturally, in a war of such scope and intensity, complex incidents also occur,” General Tomer-Yerushalmi said in a speech to the Israeli Bar Association. “Some of the incidents, like last night’s incident in Rafah, are very serious.” She added that the military “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians during the war.”
Source: NYT
加薩官員稱，以色列空襲拉法臨時帳篷營地，造成數十人死亡
加薩衛生部週一表示，以色列週日晚上對加沙拉法流離失所的巴勒斯坦人臨時帳篷營地發動空襲，造成至少 45 人死亡、249 人受傷。 以色列軍方表示，這次攻擊的目標是哈馬斯大院。
以色列軍方在聲明中表示，正在調查有關空襲和隨後的火災「該地區數名平民受傷」的報告。 後續聲明稱，這起攻擊造成兩名哈馬斯領導人死亡。 軍方一名法律官員週一表示，這起攻擊正在接受審查。
巴勒斯坦紅新月會表示，其救護人員已將「大量」受害者送往塔爾蘇丹診所和拉法的野戰醫院，那裡的醫院已所剩無幾，而且「許多」人被困在救護中心的火災中。
紅新月會表示，這次襲擊襲擊了拉法的塔爾蘇丹地區，該地區被以色列軍方指定為人道主義區，以色列在對拉法發動地面攻擊之前，已要求巴勒斯坦平民前往避難所。
以色列對加薩最南端城市拉法的襲擊受到密切關注，特別是在國際法院週五命令以色列「立即」停止在那裡的軍事進攻之後。 儘管法院幾乎沒有有效的手段來執行其命令，但它向總理本傑明·內塔尼亞胡的政府施加了更大的壓力，要求其控制對加薩的襲擊並減少平民傷亡。
30 歲的比拉爾·薩普蒂(Bilal al-Sapti) 是拉法的一名建築工人，他說，罷工的彈片炸毀了他與妻子和兩個孩子住的帳篷，但他的家人沒有受傷。
「什麼樣的帳篷可以保護我們免受飛彈和彈片的傷害？” 他說。
薩普蒂表示，在罷工現場，他看到燒焦的屍體，消防員試圖撲滅火焰時，人們都在尖叫。 「火勢非常猛烈，遍布整個營地，」他說。 「那裡一片漆黑，沒有電。」
無國界醫生表示，拉法罷工中超過 15 名死者和數十名傷者被送往該組織在塔爾蘇丹設立的創傷穩定中心。
一直在該中心工作的拉法英國緊急專家詹姆斯史密斯博士表示，這次襲擊導致流離失所者死亡，他們「在防水布帳篷中尋求某種程度的避難所和庇護所」。
史密斯博士在距離創傷中心幾英里的一所房子裡發表講話，他說這個距離太危險了，無法跨越，他說他在創傷中心的同事們分享的關於罷工和火災造成的傷害的視頻“確實是一些嚴重的傷害」。我所見過的最糟糕的情況。”
史密斯博士說，儘管聯合國估計在以色列軍方宣布進攻後幾週內就有超過 80 萬人逃離拉法，但該地區仍人口稠密。
「這些帳篷擠得非常非常緊密，」他說。 “像這樣的火災可能會在非常非常短的時間內蔓延很遠的距離，造成災難性後果。”
他補充說，這次襲擊是「我在加薩工作的幾週以來所看到或聽到的最可怕的事情之一」。
以色列軍方最高法律官員伊法特·托梅爾-耶魯沙爾米少將週一表示，這次空襲正在接受審查。 她說，憲兵隊已對戰爭期間潛在的不當行為展開了大約 70 起刑事調查。
「自然，在如此規模和強度的戰爭中，也會發生複雜的事件，」托梅爾·耶魯沙爾米將軍在以色列律師協會的演講中說。 “有些事件非常嚴重，例如昨晚在拉法發生的事件。” 她補充說，軍方「對戰爭期間對未捲入的平民造成的任何傷害感到遺憾」。
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