Nearly 100 martyrs...new massacres in Rafah and Hamas call for urgent international action

An injured child was transferred as a result of the Israeli bombing to the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah (Anatolia)

More than 100 Palestinians were martyred and dozens were injured, most of them women and children, in a violent Israeli bombardment on homes and mosques in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) considered the attack a continuation of the genocidal war against the Palestinian people, and called for urgent international action to stop the aggression.

Al Jazeera's correspondent said that the violent and unprecedented Israeli bombing was concentrated in the northern areas of the city of Rafah, and in the vicinity of Al-Rahma Mosque in Al-Shaboura Camp in Rafah. Gunboats also bombarded the seashore.

The remains of the martyrs were scattered in the targeted areas due to the intensity of the bombing, and clouds of thick smoke filled the city’s atmosphere, coinciding with an intense flight of reconnaissance planes and helicopters.

According to the Al Jazeera correspondent, the raids destroyed the Al-Huda Mosque in the Yabna camp, the Al-Rahma Mosque in the Al-Shaboura camp, and 14 residential homes for the families of Al-Mughayyir, Al-Masry, Abu Jazar, Abu Al-Husayn, Abu Rizq and others in the areas of Yabna, Khirbet Al-Adas, Al-Shaboura, Tal Al-Sultan, Mirage, the Musabah area, and Badr camp.

The reporter added that hundreds of citizens fled to the Kuwaiti hospital to escape the violent Israeli bombing.

Earlier, Al Jazeera's correspondent reported hearing clashes, artillery shelling, and intense raids in the city of Rafah. He also spoke of bombing close to the border with Egypt.

In its first statement after the bombing of Rafah, the Israeli occupation army said that it carried out a series of attacks on specific targets in the Al-Shaboura area in the southern Gaza Strip, adding that the attacks had ended.

Incendiary missiles

The director of Kuwait Hospital in Rafah, Suhaib Al-Hams, said, “The occupation forces used internationally prohibited incendiary missiles in their raids on Rafah, confirming the presence of large numbers of people with amputations, brain lacerations, and burns.”

In turn, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said, "The number of martyrs of the Rafah massacre is likely to rise, due to the presence of missing persons under the rubble of the homes whose residents were bombed."

The Red Crescent added that the process of transporting the martyrs and injured is carried out in a primitive manner, due to the lack of a sufficient number of ambulances to rescue the wounded after the bloody night in Rafah.

Al Jazeera obtained pictures of the arrival of a number of martyrs and wounded to the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah and the European Hospital in Khan Yunis as a result of the Israeli raids on various areas in the city of Rafah.

Rafah is the last refuge for the displaced in the stricken sector, and it includes more than 1,400,000 Palestinians, including 1,300,000 displaced people from other governorates.

Genocide

In the first Palestinian response, the Hamas movement said that the Nazi occupation army’s attack on the city of Rafah tonight, and its horrific massacres committed against defenseless civilians and displaced children, women and the elderly, in which more than 100 martyrs have been killed so far, is considered a continuation of the “genocidal” war. And the forced displacement attempts launched against our Palestinian people.

The movement's statement added that the Israeli attack on Rafah confirms that Benjamin Netanyahu's government is ignoring the decisions of the International Court of Justice, which approved urgent measures to stop any steps that could be considered acts of genocide.

Hamas held the US administration and President Joe Biden personally fully responsible, along with the occupation government, for this ongoing massacre against the Palestinian people.

The League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the UN Security Council called for urgent action to stop the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that has left tens of thousands of martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive destruction of infrastructure, which led to Tel Aviv appearing before the International Court of Justice on charges of “genocide.” Collective.”

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies