Israel’s war on Gaza updates: ‘More than 30’ killed in Rafah strike

Achieving a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible should be the first priority, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa has told European stakeholders.

“Every day represents a major loss of human lives and properties and hope for our people, so we want to see a ceasefire taking place very quickly,” he said.

Mustafa says the organisation wants to be prepared as a government to assist Palestinians after the war and rebuild PA institutions in Gaza and reintegrate them with those in the occupied West Bank.

Ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, the new prime minister is in Brussels pitching reforms and offering a plan for the future of Gaza.

The first priority is to support our people in #Gaza, they need every support we can; and I think the best support we can all do for them is to speed up the ceasefire.#Palestine pic.twitter.com/rwlsHGkr65

— PM of Palestine (@PalestinePMO) May 27, 2024

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees says it is horrified as it follows information coming out of Rafah about the Israeli attacks on tents belonging to displaced Palestinians.

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

UNRWA added that it has lost contact with its staff on the ground and is concerned about their safety, along with those of civilians in the area.

Information coming out of #Rafah about further attacks on families seeking shelter is horrifying.

There are reports of mass causalities including children and women among those killed.

Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that.

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 27, 2024

The armed Lebanese group says in a statement that its forces used different munitions to hit the al-Malikiyah site used by Israeli forces during border fighting.

Rockets and artillery shells were used and a drone dropped explosives with precision, Hezbollah claimed.

This was their third attack on Monday, with others targeting positions in northern Israel using artillery shells.

The group claimed 15 attacks on Israeli positions on Sunday, including strikes using rockets and antitank guided missiles. It also confirmed multiple fighters were killed.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s events:

• The Ministry of Health in Gaza says  at least 35 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were injured as a result of Israeli air attacks on a camp in Rafah for displaced people
• Women and children are amongst those killed, the ministry said.
• At least 12 people have been killed after Israeli forces attacked a home in the Jabalia al-Nazlh area in northern Gaza.
• The Israeli army has said eight rockets were launched from the Rafah area in southern Gaza at central Israel.
• A “strong” Palestinian Authority is needed to bring peace in the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says.
• At least one civilian was killed and another injured in the Israeli drone attack, which hit a motorcycle in southern Lebanon’s Aita al-Shaab, according to Lebanon’s NNA news agency.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin-Farhan has said after meetings with Arab and European counterparts in Brussels that it is very concerning that Israel does not recognise that the security it seeks comes through a two-state solution.

“It is absolutely necessary that Israel accepts that it cannot exist without the existence of a Palestinian state,” the top Saudi diplomat told reporters.

“That its security is served by building a Palestinian state. So we hope sincerely that the leaders of Israel will realise that it is in their interest to work with the international community, not just to strengthen the Palestinian Authority but to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.”

#Brussels | Foreign Minister HH Prince @FaisalbinFarhan: it is absolutely necessary that Israel accepts that it cannot exist without the existence of a Palestinian State. pic.twitter.com/F8IDDqGGg2

— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) May 26, 2024

The US congresswoman has delivered her harshest rebuke yet of the administration of President Joe Biden during a speech at a Detroit pro-Palestine conference.

“Attacking the authority of the International Criminal Court and interfering in legal processes is nothing more than an attempt to prevent the genocidal maniac Netanyahu and his senior Israeli officials for being held accountable for crimes against humanity.”

“You are an enabler, President Biden,” Tlaib said to applause.

The first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress added that the US position that no genocide is taking place in Gaza amounts to “shielding murderous criminal Netanyahu and the Israeli government”.

U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib at People’s Conference for Palestine: By Attacking the Authority of the ICC, President Biden Is Enabling, Shielding Genocidal Maniac Netanyahu and Senior Israeli Officials pic.twitter.com/LmBKsUDpja

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 26, 2024

About 620,000 children in Gaza have been out of school for nearly eight months.

In al-Mawasi, a narrow, barren strip of land designated an evacuation zone by the Israeli army, tents are being used as makeshift classrooms.

Watch our video report below.

Palestinian Authority representatives were told during a meeting hosted by Norway and the EU that European donors have “deep concern over the deteriorating situation” of the organisation.

According to Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, they also expressed support “for strengthening the government of Palestine”.

In a separate meeting on Israel’s war on Gaza, an event also co-hosted by Norway in Brussels, top diplomats from Qatar and Saudi Arabia sat down with EU foreign ministers and representatives.

According to the Qatari Foreign Ministry, it was a follow-up to a similar meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh in April, which also focused on ways of moving towards a two-state solution.

Together w/ EU High Rep @JosepBorrellF, I hosted today’s partner meeting, where PM Mustafa presented his plans for strengthening the government of Palestine.

The donors expressed deep concern over the deteriorating situation of the Palestine Authority and reaffirmed our support. pic.twitter.com/vqclafCWt2

— Espen Barth Eide (@EspenBarthEide) May 26, 2024

Responding to the attack at the tent camp in Rafah, Palestinian writer and activist Kaleem Hawa said it was clear “there is no red line for Israel and the United States”.

“They have the ability to attack the civilian population indiscriminately to create mass graves, … to put 2 million people under siege,” he told Al Jazeera from Detroit, US, where a pro-Palestine conference is ongoing.

“All red lines have ceased to exist. And only the resistance of the Palestinian people on the ground and our struggle here in the imperial core will help bring about an end to this ongoing genocide and campaign of extermination.”

“In light of the horrific Zionist massacre this evening committed by the criminal occupation army against the tents of the displaced… we call on the masses of our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the occupied territories, and abroad to rise up and march angrily against the ongoing Zionist massacre against our people in the sector,” the armed group said in a statement.

Earlier, the Israeli army bombed a displacement camp in northwest Rafah, killing at least 35 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza has spoken to Al Jazeera about the attack on the displacement camp in Rafah.

Here is a summary of their comments:

• There is a need to follow the basic rules of international humanitarian law.
• The healthcare system in Gaza is incapable of dealing with the situation in Rafah.
• The number of victims from the bombing of the displacement camp and raids in Rafah is likely to rise.

Survivors of the Israeli attack on the displacement camp in Rafah have spoken to Al Jazeera.

“I was walking and looking at my phone when the area was struck,” one survivor said.

“I did not realise what had happened. I had no idea what had become my family. My mother was with me and my brother was injured at the camp. I fell to the ground and saw that my leg had been split open.”

Another survivor said the air raid “burned an entire block”.

“They burned people alive,” he said.

Aryeh Neier, a long-standing Jewish human rights activist whose family fled from Nazi Germany to the United States in 1939 when he was two years old, says he has been convinced that the Israeli military is committing “genocide” in Gaza.

“Over a period of time, Israel has obstructed the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and those who have been most severely victimised are not members of Hamas,” the co-founder of Human Rights Watch told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview.

Neier said men with guns often find a way to get fed, while it is vulnerable children who are severely malnourished across the enclave.

“I thought that severe obstruction in the delivery of humanitarian assistance amounted to genocide.”

The humanitarian activist added that the amount of food, water, medicine and fuel that the Israeli military has allowed into Gaza since the start of the war has been “entirely inadequate”, also pointing out that the World Food Programme has said famine is under way in the Palestinian territory.

Is Israel committing humanitarian crimes in Gaza? The Israeli gov’t strenuously denies it.

Aryeh Neier, a giant in the world of human rights who escaped Nazi Germany and later cofounder Human Rights Watch, says the answer is yes.

Our conversation from today’s GPS: pic.twitter.com/dQC20WDywO

— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) May 26, 2024

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said the Israeli army has confirmed launching an attack on the Tal as-Sultan area in the southern Gaza city.

The details of this attack are under investigation.

The Israeli military has released aerial footage that it says shows an air strike on the site in Gaza’s Rafah from which Hamas had fired missiles at Tel Aviv earlier today.

It claimed that the launcher, which had fired eight projectiles at central Israel in a sort of attack not seen in months, was located near two mosques.

The Qassam Brigades of Hamas released a video of the missile barrage.

"كـ.ـتائب القـ.ـسام" تقصف تل أبيب برشقة صاروخية#حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/TDFsfAmbga

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) May 26, 2024

Translation: Qassam Brigades bombards Tel Aviv with a missile barrage.

The two Palestinian groups fighting against Israeli forces in Gaza say in separate statements that the mass killing of displaced civilians in western Rafah is especially “heinous” since the Israeli military had declared the area a safe zone.

“We hold the American administration and President Biden in particular fully responsible for this massacre,” said Hamas, adding that the air strikes come “in complete defiance and disregard for” the orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt Rafah military operations.

The statement by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said the attacks on Rafah show “the depths of the military failure” that Israel is trying to compensate in blood.

“The continuation of the enemy’s crimes in the Gaza Strip is a result of the cover provided by the US administration, the positions of some European governments, and the weak stances of Arab regimes,” it said.

الاحتلال الإسرائيلي يرتكب مجزرة مروعة بحق النازحين شمال غربي رفح جنوبي قطاع غزة#حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/18qnCiZLpx

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) May 26, 2024

Translation: The Israeli occupation commits a horrific massacre against the displaced people northwest of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.