Palestinians react to destruction caused by an Israeli army attack on Sunday in a displaced refugee camp in the Gaza town of Rafah, which Palestinian medical workers say left at least 35 people dead. The Israeli army confirmed Sunday’s attack, claiming to have struck a Hamas compound and killed two senior Hamas officials. (AP photo/Jehad Al-Shrafi)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that an Israeli military attack in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah that set fire to a Palestinian refugee camp and killed at least 45 people, local officials said, was a “tragic mistake.”
The attack added to the international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamas, with even its closest allies expressing outrage over the civilian deaths. Israel maintains it is following international law while facing scrutiny from the world’s highest courts, one of which last week called for an end to the attack in Rafah.
Netanyahu did not provide details about the mistake. The Israeli military initially said it had carried out a precision airstrike on a Hamas compound, killing two senior militants. After details of the airstrike and gunfire emerged, the military said it had opened an investigation into the civilian deaths.
Sunday night’s attack was believed to be one of the deadliest of the war, bringing the total number of Palestinian deaths in the conflict to more than 36,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
“Despite our best efforts to avoid harming innocent civilians, a tragic mistake was made last night,” Netanyahu said in a speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday. “We are investigating the incident and will reach a conclusion, because this is our policy.”
Mohammed Abu-Assa, who rushed to the scene in the northwestern town of Tal al-Sultan, said rescuers had “rescued people from unbearable conditions”.
“We rescued children who were torn apart. We rescued young people and old people. The camp fire was unreal,” he said.
At least 45 people were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent Rescue Service. The ministry said the dead included at least 12 women, eight children and three elderly people, and that the bodies of three more were burned beyond recognition.
The Egyptian army said one soldier was shot dead in a gun battle in the Rafah neighborhood, but gave no further details. Israel said it was in contact with Egyptian authorities and both sides were investigating.
Egypt’s state-run Kahera television station reported that an initial investigation showed the soldiers were responding to a firefight between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. Egypt has warned that the Israeli advance on Rafah could threaten a decades-old peace treaty between the two countries.
The U.N. Security Council is due to hold an emergency closed-door meeting on the situation in Rafah on Tuesday afternoon at the request of Algeria, the council’s Arab representative, two council diplomats told The Associated Press.
More than one million people — about half the Gaza Strip’s population — have fled to Rafah, the southernmost city on the border with Egypt, most of whom have fled again since Israel launched its limited invasion earlier this month. Hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps in and around the city.
Elsewhere in Rafah, the director of Kuwait Hospital, one of the city’s only functioning medical centers, said he would close the hospital and move staff to a field hospital. Dr. Suhaib al-Hamas said the decision came after an attack at the hospital’s entrance on Monday killed two medical workers.
Netanyahu said Israel must destroy the last remaining Hamas battalion in Rafah. The militant group fired a barrage of rockets from Rafah into densely populated central Israel on Sunday, triggering air raid sirens but causing no injuries.
The attack on Rafah sparked a new wave of condemnation, even from Israel’s staunchest supporters.
The US National Security Council said in a statement that the “devastating images” from the attack on Rafah were “heartbreaking” and that the US was working with the Israeli military and others to investigate what happened.
French President Emmanuel Macron was even more blunt, saying “these operations must stop” in a post on X. “There are no safe areas for Palestinian civilians in Rafah. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire,” Macron wrote.
The German Foreign Ministry, a strong supporter of Israel for decades, said the “images of charred bodies, including children, from the airstrikes in Rafah are intolerable.”
“The exact circumstances must be clarified and the investigation announced by the Israeli army must be carried out as soon as possible,” the ministry added. “Civilians must ultimately be better protected.”
Qatar, a key intermediary in the push to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, said the attack on Rafah could “complicate” the negotiations. The seemingly resumed talks have repeatedly stalled over Hamas’ demands for a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops, which Israeli leaders have publicly rejected.
Israel’s chief legal officer, Maj. Gen. Ifat Tomer Yerushalmi, said authorities were investigating the attack in Rafah and that the military regretted the loss of civilian lives.
Tomer Yerushalmi told an Israeli lawyers’ conference that Israel had opened 70 criminal investigations into alleged violations of international law, including into civilian deaths, conditions in detention centers for suspected militants and deaths of prisoners in Israeli custody. He said property crimes and cases of looting were also being investigated.
Israel has long maintained it has an independent judicial system capable of investigating and prosecuting abuses, but rights groups say Israeli authorities do not always adequately investigate acts of violence against Palestinians and, when soldiers are held responsible, punishments are often light.
Israel denies the genocide allegations brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, which last week ordered Israel to halt attacks on Rafah but has no authority to enforce the ruling.
Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and three Hamas leaders for crimes related to the war. The International Criminal Court will only intervene if it determines that the country in question is unable or unwilling to adequately prosecute such crimes.
Israel says it is doing its best to comply with the laws of war. Israeli leaders also say their enemies have made no such commitments, are hiding out in civilian areas and are refusing to unconditionally release Israeli hostages.
Hamas sparked the war with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Hamas still holds about 100 hostages and about 30 bodies, but most of the rest were released in a ceasefire last year.
Around 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced to flee their homes, and severe hunger is widespread, with UN officials saying famine is on the rise in parts of the strip.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Zeik Miller in Washington, Karsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Colleen Barry in Rome contributed to this report.
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