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Rafah: Israel has always been considered a country of warriors. It knows how to respond to every attack very well. Israel has been continuously bombing it since Hamas attacked it. The Israeli army claimed on Monday that it has killed Hamas’s Chief of Staff. However, unlike the early days, now the number of its friends in the world is decreasing. Diplomats have told AFP that the United Nations Security (UN) Council has called an emergency meeting on Tuesday after the Israeli attack on the displaced people’s camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Diplomats said that the closed-door meeting was requested by Algeria. Algeria is currently a temporary member of the Council.
Canada called it devastating
Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly called for a ceasefire in a social media post on Monday, saying Canada was “horrified” by the deaths of civilians from Israeli airstrikes on a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah. “The images coming from Rafah are horrific and heartbreaking,” Joly said in a separate statement in the House of Commons. “The killing of innocent civilians is completely unacceptable. It is devastating. That’s why we need an immediate ceasefire,” she said.
Demonstration in support of Gaza in France
About 10,000 people took part in a demonstration near the Israeli embassy in Paris on Monday against Israel’s deadly shelling of the Gaza city of Rafah. The demonstration was a few hundred meters (yards) from the embassy in the center of the French capital. Protesters chanted “We are all children of Gaza”, “Free Gaza” and other slogans in support of Palestine. “This is a huge massacre. They set fire to a camp for the displaced. They burn people and we (France) don’t even call the Israeli ambassador to demand an accounting. This is not acceptable,” said François Rippe of the Association France-Palestine Solidarity group, which organized the demonstration. A large banner at the demonstration showed French President Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden of the United States and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the slogan “These are the people who are killing humanity”.
Hamas will no longer negotiate
Hamas has reportedly informed mediators that it will not participate in any talks for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip or an agreement to hand back prisoners following Israel’s attack on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah on Sunday night. A Hamas source was quoted as saying that the decision was taken in response to Israeli forces “targeting displaced civilians northwest of Rafah, killing and wounding dozens of them”. The source also said on Monday that the Hamas leadership has not received any official information from mediators in Egypt or Qatar regarding the resumption of talks. Gaza health officials said in a press statement on Monday that at least 45 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed in Israeli air strikes on tents of displaced people near the city of Rafah. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said at a press conference in Beirut on Monday that Israel will not be able to receive hostages except our conditions given to the mediators. Hamdan said that Hamas’ conditions for reaching an agreement, including a permanent ceasefire, will remain unchanged.
Hamas Chief of Staff killed
The Israel Defense Forces said on Monday that an Israeli aircraft killed Hamas Chief of Staff Yassin Rabia in the West Bank in the southern Gaza city of Rafah last week. An IDF statement said the attack was carried out in the Sultan’s Tal area in northwest Rafah based on accurate intelligence. It said Rabia had carried out several deadly attacks. These included attacks in 2001 and 2002 in which Israeli soldiers were killed. According to the statement, Khaled Nagar, a senior official at Hamas’ West Bank headquarters, was also killed in Israeli airstrikes. He allegedly directed attacks in the West Bank and transferred funds to Hamas’ activities in the Gaza Strip. It said, “The IDF is aware of reports indicating that several civilians in the area have been harmed as a result of the attack and fire. The incident is being reviewed.”
Israel concerned about ICC
Israel is concerned about the International Criminal Court (ICC). It fears that the ICC may issue arrest warrants for Israeli government officials on charges related to the conduct of the war against Hamas. The ICC is investigating Hamas’ October 7 cross-border attack and Israel’s devastating attack on Hamas-ruled Gaza. This investigation is now in its seventh month. In response to Israeli media reports that the ICC could soon issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli government and military officials, Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Sunday warned Israeli embassies to step up their security due to the risk of a “wave of severe anti-Semitism”. “We expect the ICC to refrain from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli political and security officials. We will not bow our heads or be deterred and will keep fighting,” Katz said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he would be “unable to resist” any decision by the ICC.
