Israel-Gaza war live: attacks on Rafah are ‘horrifying’ and Gaza is ‘hell on earth’, Unwra says | Israel-Gaza war

Israel is investigating the deaths of Palestinians captured during the war in Gaza, as well as a military-run detention camp where a human rights group has alleged abuse of inmates, the armed forces’ chief prosecutor said.

Citing accounts by former inmates and a doctor from the Sde Teiman base, the Physicians for Human Rights group said last month that detainees have suffered severe violence causing fractures, internal bleeding and even death.

Palestinians have also accused Israeli soldiers of illegal killings during the almost eight-month-old conflict in Gaza.

“To date, 70 military police investigations have been opened into incidents that have raised suspicion of criminal offences,” Major-General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, the military advocate-general, told a conference hosted by the Israel Bar Association.

“These investigations also address allegations raised about the incarceration conditions at Sde Teiman detention centre and the deaths of detainees in IDF custody. We are treating these allegations very seriously and are taking action to probe them.”

Lili Bayer

Lili Bayer is the Guardian’s Europe live blogger

The Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, said in a social media post that “yesterday, a so-called ‘safe zone’ outside Rafah was bombed by Israel, killing tens of women and children”.

“We urgently need partners ready to sit around the table to discuss peace,” he added.

Lisa O’Carroll

Lisa O’Carroll is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent

There is likely to be division, as there has been since the outbreak of war in the Middle East, but some countries including Spain and Luxembourg want will seek joint support from EU foreign ministers today for the international court of justice order calling for Israel to halt the violence.

If not, then the EU just looks like a “dog which barks a lot but doesn’t bite,” said Luxembourg foreign minister Xavier Bettel on his way into the summit of foreign ministers in Brussels.

Qatar’s foreign ministry has said the Israeli airstrike on Rafah, which reportedly killed at least 35 Palestinian people, could hinder mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire in the conflict and a hostage release deal.

Several attempts at brokering a new truce, after a week-long cessation of hostilities in November, have foundered. The last round of talks, mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar, quickly drew to a stalemate after Israel launched its attack on Rafah.

US intelligence officials met Israeli and Qatari delegations in Paris on Friday in an attempt to get negotiations back on track, but Hamas downplayed reports of tentative progress, telling Reuters on Sunday that the group had not received anything from the mediators on new dates for the resumption of talks, as Israeli media had reported.

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, has said that reports of attacks on families seeking shelter in Rafah in southern Gaza were “horrifying”.

“Information coming out of Rafah about further attacks on families seeking shelter is horrifying,” Unrwa wrote on X.

“There are reports of mass casualties including children and women among those killed. Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that.”

Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said on Sunday Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinian people and injured dozens of others in an area in Rafah designated for those who have been displaced.

It came only days after the international court of justice ordered Israel to immediately halt its assault on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are still sheltering.

Lisa O’Carroll

Lisa O’Carroll is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent

Germany’s foreign minister has said Germany supports the revival of a former EU security border security mission for border protection in Rafah.

Just hours after Hamas fired missiles at Tel Aviv provoking an attack that the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said had claimed 30 lives in a refugee camp in Gaza, Annalena Baerbock called for an immediate ceasefire.

She said:

We are all experiencing how terrible the situation is. This suffering cannot go on for another day. This has once again prompted the international court of justice to make urgent decisions, to initiate provisional measures to achieve a humanitarian ceasefire. For this humanitarian ceasefire is what we as Europeans, the German federal government [are calling for].

We will do everything we can to achieve this, however difficult the situation is at the moment. That also means thinking again about how humanitarian aid and the worsening situation in Gaza can come in. We now have the situation where Rafah is closed again.

Germany supports the idea that we should reactivate the former EU border security mission, for border protection in Rafah.

Lisa O’Carroll

Lisa O’Carroll is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent

Ireland, Norway and Spain will formally recognise Palestine tomorrow, the Irish deputy prime minister Micheál Martin said.

At a joint press conference in Brussels he said all three were “focused on how recognition can contribute to concrete and irreversible steps to vindicate the right to Palestinian self-determination, and to implement a two-state solution”.

They were speaking ahead of a meeting between EU foreign ministers and Middle East Arab leaders.

“We had an excellent meeting last night, with over 40 European, Arab and other partners, discussing exactly this point,” Martin added.

“We focused on building cross-regional cooperation, including on the principles underlying the Arab Peace Vision. We agreed on the need for an early end to the brutal war in Gaza, and clear steps towards the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said.

The international criminal court should investigate as war crimes three Israeli airstrikes that killed 44 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children, in the Gaza Strip last month, Amnesty International has said.

The strikes – one on al-Maghazi on 16 April, and two on the southern city of Rafah on 19 and 20 April 2024 – also injured at least 20 civilians, the organisation said.

“These devastating strikes have decimated families and cruelly cut short the lives of 32 children,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said.

“Our findings offer crucial evidence of unlawful attacks by the Israeli military as the prosecutor of the international criminal court applies for arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials, including Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As the Israeli military continues to escalate its ground incursion in Rafah, these cases also illustrate the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire.

“Despite growing calls to end arms transfers to Israel, a UN security council resolution ordering a ceasefire, and world leaders warning against the Israeli ground incursion into Rafah, the Israeli military has continued to escalate its operations, including these unrelenting attacks on civilians.

“The cases documented here illustrate a clear pattern of attacks over the past seven months in which the Israeli military has flouted international law, killing Palestinian civilians with total impunity and displaying a callous disregard for human lives.”

Since October, Amnesty International has conducted in-depth investigations into 16 Israeli airstrikes that it says killed 370 civilians, including 159 children, and says it has found evidence of war crimes committed by Israeli forces, including direct attacks on civilians and collective punishment of the civilian population. Israel has denied committing war crimes.

Israel’s foreign ministry said it had told the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem to stop offering consular services to Palestinians from 1 June over Madrid’s recognition of a Palestinian state.

The ministry said that Spain’s consulate in Jerusalem is “authorised to provide consular services to residents of the consular district of Jerusalem only, and is not authorised to provide services or perform consular activity vis-a-vis residents of the Palestinian Authority”.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said in a separate statement that “today, I implemented preliminary punitive measures against the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem following the Spanish government’s recognition of a Palestinian state”.

“We will not put up with harming Israel’s sovereignty and security.”

Last week, Ireland, Spain and Norway announced they would formally recognise a Palestinian state on 28 May, prompting Israel to launch a swift diplomatic counteroffensive to try to deter others from recognising Palestine.

The EU members Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Malta had indicated in recent weeks that they planned to make a recognition announcement. Since 1988, 139 of 193 UN member states have recognised Palestinian statehood.

Lisa O’Carroll

Lisa O’Carroll is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent

EU foreign ministers will meet leaders from the Middle East in Brussels today to discuss how to “revitalise the political process”, the bloc’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said.

He called on global leaders to “respect” the decision of the international criminal court last week which filed applications for warrants for the arrest of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Benjamin Netanyahu, a move that enraged the Israeli prime minister.

“The prosecutor of the court has been strongly intimidated and accused of antisemitism, as always, that everyone does something that the Netanyahu government doesn’t like,” Borrell said.

“I think that the accusation of antisemitism against the prosecutor of the international criminal court is completely not acceptable.”

Foreign ministers will meet the secretary general of the League of Arab States and leaders of Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said that Israel is pushing ahead with military action in southern Gaza despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice urging the country to immediately halt its push.

Borrell said that the world court ruling must be implemented, ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers’, adding he would also work towards reaching a political decision on the launch of a dedicated EU border assistance mission for the Rafah border crossing.

Aid groups say they are “horrified” by an Israeli strike on tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Rafah that has left at least 35 people dead.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said dozens of dead and injured people were brought to a trauma stabilisation supported by the group.

The aid group said in a post on X:

We are horrified by this deadly event which shows once again that nowhere is safe.

The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza earlier said the attack hit a centre run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees near Rafah, saying it was a “horrific massacre”.

Footage from the scene showed widespread destruction at the camp with a large fire overtaking the area. The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound and that the strike was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence.”

Israel’s army said it has killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for the Palestinian militant group in the occupied West Bank, reports Agence France-Presse.

It added that it was:

… aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited, several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review.

Israel’s army said Sunday at least eight rockets were fired towards central areas of the country from Rafah, with strikes targeting the commercial hub of Tel Aviv for the first time in months.

It’s 9:16am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.

Aid groups say they are “horrified” by an Israeli strike on tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Rafah that has left at least 35 people dead.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said dozens of dead and injured people were brought to a trauma stabilisation supported by the group.

The aid group said in a statement:

We are horrified by this deadly event which shows once again that nowhere is safe.

Footage from the scene showed a large fire in the area.

Israel’s army said its aircraft “struck a Hamas compound in Rafah“, killing Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for the Palestinian militant group in the occupied West Bank, reports Agence France-Presse.

It added that it was:

… aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited, several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review.

Israel’s army said on Sunday at least eight rockets were fired towards central areas of the country from Rafah, with strikes targeting the commercial hub of Tel Aviv for the first time in months.

More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:

• Seventy organisations have called on all relevant authorities and international institutions to officially declare a famine in the Gaza Strip, where there is a rapid spread of famine, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. It said that food insecurity is increasing across the enclave because of Israel’s use of starvation as a “weapon of war” against the Palestinian people – something the organisations say is part of a genocide. The organisation said food security levels have significantly declined due to the Israeli army’s offensive in Rafah which began in early May.

• Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said it launched a “big missile” attack on Tel Aviv on Sunday as the Israeli military sounded sirens in the central city warning of possible incoming rockets. In a statement on its Telegram channel, al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to what it called “Zionist massacres against civilians”. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January.

• At least 35,984 Palestinian people have been killed and 80,643 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement.

• Amnesty International on Monday urged the international criminal court to investigate as war crimes three recent Israeli strikes that killed 44 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children. Amnesty said three Israeli strikes – one on the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on 16 April, and two on Rafah in southern Gaza on 19 and 20 April – are “further evidence of a broader pattern of war crimes” committed by the Israeli military in Gaza, reports AFP.