Israel-Gaza war live: 1 million people flee Rafah as tanks reported in city centre | Israel-Gaza war

At least seven Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in new Israeli strikes on an area of tents housing displaced people West of Rafah on Tuesday, Gaza health authorities have said.

Reuters reports the new Israeli strikes targeted tents of displaced families in the designated humanitarian area in Mawasi in western Rafah, according to medics and residents. Other local media has given the number of casualties as at least 20 people killed. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

The new strike comes just a day after a previous Israeli airstrike caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah which medics said killed at least 45 people. Images of charred and dismembered children from that assault prompting an outcry from global leaders. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in parliament that “something unfortunately went tragically wrong” with that airstrike.

Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from inside Gaza, has written for the news network that:

Israeli tanks are pushing deeper into Rafah right now from two major axes – first, along the Philadelphi Corridor into the city centre, and second, from the eastern part of Rafah city all the way down to an area known as the al-Awda traffic circle.

Artillery shelling there has reached as far as the vicinity of the Kuwaiti hospital, which has been pushed out of service all day.

Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the health ministry, said that all the hospitals in the Rafah region were out of service, with the exception of Tal Al-Sultan maternity hospital which was “struggling”.

Earlier this month Benjamin Netanyahu’s government shut down Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, and last week Israel seized Associated Press camera and broadcasting kit after accusing the agency of violating the country’s new media law by providing content to Al Jazeera.

Ireland, Spain and Norway have all formally recognised a Palestinian state today. The joint decision by two European Union countries plus Norway, a nation with a strong diplomatic tradition in peacemaking, may generate momentum for the recognition of a Palestinian state by other EU countries and could spur further steps at the United Nations, which would deepen Israel’s international isolation.

Palestine is now formally recognised by 142 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, and itself has non-member observer status at the body.

The Palestinian flag was flown, alongside the flags of Ukraine and the EU, outside Leinster House in Dublin.

Associated Press notes the UN general assembly voted by a significant margin on 11 May to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine in a sign of growing international support for a vote on full voting membership.

“This is a historic decision that has a single goal, and that is to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace,” Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said before his Cabinet certified the decision.

Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz earlier said Sánchez’s government was “being complicit in inciting genocide against Jews and war crimes”. The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in The Hague is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli leaders in connection with accusations of war crimes in Gaza and Israel since 7 October.

“There are practical actions you can take as a country to help keep the hope and destination of a two-state solution alive at a time when others are trying to sadly bomb it into oblivion,” Irish prime minister Simon Harris. At the weekend an Israeli airstrike on displaced Palestinians living in tents in Rafah has caused widespread international indignation. “I again call on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to listen to the world and stop the humanitarian catastrophe we are seeing in Gaza,” Harris said.

The Hamas-led heath authority in Gaza has claimed that over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed during the course of Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground operation on the territory. Harris added that Europe could be doing “a hell of a lot more” with regard to sanctions on Israel.

Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide said that “for more than 30 years, Norway has been one of the strongest advocates for a Palestinian state. Today, when Norway officially recognises Palestine as a state, is a milestone in the relationship between Norway and Palestine.”

Previously seven member of the 27-nation European Union officially recognized a Palestinian state. Five of them are former east bloc countries who announced recognition in 1988, as did Cyprus, before joining the bloc. Sweden’s recognition came in 2014.

Britain has said no recognition of a Palestinian state could come while Hamas remains in Gaza. France has indicated that it isn’t ready to join other countries in recognizing a Palestinian state, even if it isn’t opposed to the idea in principle. German has said it will not recognise a Palestinian state for the time being.

An investigation has revealed a nine year “war” on the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague waged by Israel:

An investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call can reveal how Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the court. The country deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.

Israeli intelligence captured the communications of numerous ICC officials, including chief prosecutor Karim Khan and his predecessor as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents.

The surveillance was ongoing in recent months, providing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with advance knowledge of the prosecutor’s intentions. A recent intercepted communication suggested that Khan wanted to issue arrest warrants against Israelis but was under “tremendous pressure from the United States”, according to a source familiar with its contents.

Bensouda, who as chief prosecutor opened the ICC’s investigation in 2021, paving the way for last week’s announcement, was also spied on and allegedly threatened.

Read more here: Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the ICC exposed

Planet Labs has released before and after satellite imagery of the camp for displaced people northwest of Rafah which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Sunday. The strike triggered a large fire which has left visible burn marks near the tents we’ve highlighted.

At least 45 people, including many women and children, were killed in the strike and more than 200 were injured.

Rory Carroll

The Palestinian flag has been raised over Ireland’s parliament’s as Dublin prepares to officially recognize a Palestinian state on Tuesday.

The Palestinian mission in Dublin is to be upgraded to an embassy and Ireland will upgrade its representative office in Ramallah, in the West Bank, to an embassy.

The moves come amid renewed Irish condemnation of Israeli attacks on Rafah. Europe could be doing a “hell of a lot more” to press for a ceasefire in Gaza and to sanction Israel, said Simon Harris, the taoiseach.

“We have an association agreement that is effectively a trade benefit agreement between Europe and Israel, and I am very confident that the overwhelming majority of people in this country would like to see that agreement reviewed from a human rights point of view,” said Harris.

He accused rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated regret for an air strike that killed at least 45 people. “Unfortunately, we now have a new despicable and disgusting trend emerging where every now and again a particular event of absolute horror seems to take place and the prime minister of Israel comes out and describes this as a tragic mistake.

Israeli strikes on Rafah have killed at least 16 Palestinians, first responders said on Tuesday as residents reported an escalation of fighting in the southern Gaza city.

Strikes overnight killed a total of 16 people in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in northwest Rafah, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense and the Palestinian Red Crescent, AP reports.

“It was a night of horror,” said Abdel-Rahman Abu Ismail, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Tel al-Sultan since December. He said he heard “constant sounds” of explosions overnight and into Tuesday morning, with fighter jets and drones flying over the area.

He said it reminded him of the Israeli invasion of of his neighborhood of Shijaiyah in Gaza City, where Israel launched a heavy bombing campaign before sending in ground forces in late 2023. “We saw this before,” he said.

Sayed al-Masri, a Rafah resident, said many families have been forced to flee their homes and shelters, with most heading for the crowded Mawasi area, where giant tent camps have been set up on a barren coastline, or to Khan Younis, a southern city that suffered heavy damage during months of fighting.

“The situation is worsening” in Rafah, al-Masri said.

The latest strikes occurred in the same area where Israel targeted what it said was a Hamas compound on Sunday night. That strike ignited a fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians and killed at least 45 people, according to local health officials, sparking worldwide outrage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was a “tragic mishap” on Sunday and the military said it was investigating.

Israel says it is carrying out limited operations in eastern Rafah along the Gaza-Egypt border. But residents reported heavy bombardment overnight in western parts of Rafah as well.