Israeli forces earlier today exchanged gunfire with Egyptian troops along their shared border that resulted in the death of at least one Egyptian soldier. The IDF this afternoon reported a ‘shooting incident’ at the border close to the crossing into Gaza, adding that it was discussing the issue with the Egyptian authorities but revealed no further information. ‘A few hours ago, a shooting incident occurred on the Egyptian border. The incident is under review and discussions are being held with the Egyptians,’ the military said this afternoon in a statement.
Cairo quickly confirmed the shooting as a military spokesman said authorities had opened an investigation into the incident. The shooting comes hours after the IDF conducted an airstrike on the city of Rafah in Gaza which killed at least 45 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Gaza’s civil defence force said this morning that the death toll from the punishing overnight strikes on Rafah rose to 40 before later upping that total again to 45.
The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said the attack hit a centre run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees near Rafah, branding it a ‘horrific massacre’. Israel meanwhile said its aircraft ‘struck a Hamas compound’, killing Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, two senior officials for the Palestinian militant group who primarily work in the occupied West Bank. The IDF 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.’
The strike came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population had sought shelter before Israel’s recent incursion. The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulance crews transported ‘a large number’ of people killed and injured in the strikes. The Palestinian Authority presidency in the West Bank called it a ‘heinous massacre’, accusing Israeli forces of ‘deliberately targeting’ the tents of displaced people.
The attack, caught on tape by refugees on the ground, resulted in heavy destruction and flames last night. It left civilians reeling this morning, with photos showing Palestinians searching through burned out tents and makeshift camps for food. Israel’s allies further condemned its methods of warfare in the region, with the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell saying this morning as EU ministers met their Arab counterparts that a ruling made by a UN court for Israel to stop its invasion of Gaza immediately must be implemented.
Borrell said today: We have to express not only respect, but to ask for the implementation of the decision of the court. ‘This is really a dilemma how the international community can… force implementation of the decision.’ He added that EU ministers were also set to discuss relaunching a mission suspended back in 2007 to monitor the crossing after calls for it to do so from regional players including Israel. The EU’s top diplomat said he expected to get a preliminary mandate from ministers to press ahead with planning for the mission.
‘But it’s not only us who have to decide – the Egyptians, Palestinian Israelis,’ he said. ‘We need to increase the number of staff and we need to have an agreement with everybody involved.’ Washington has also taken a tougher line with its close ally as outrage over the war and US support for Israel has become a major issue for President Joe Biden, seeking re-election in a battle against Donald Trump. The United Nations has warned of looming famine in besieged Gaza, where most hospitals are no longer functioning.
Last Monday, the prosecutor at the ICC said he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister as well as for three top Hamas figures. And on Friday, the UN’s International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt any operation in Rafah that could bring about ‘the physical destruction’ of the Palestinians. Hamas’s armed wing said Sunday that it targeted Tel Aviv ‘with a large rocket barrage in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians’.
‘Hamas launched these rockets from near two mosques in Rafah,’ Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. The salvo sent people scrambling for shelter but there were no reports of injuries. 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. Fighting has recently centred on Rafah, where Israel’s military launched a ground operation in early May despite widespread opposition over concerns for civilians sheltering there.
Netanyahu vowed to pursue Israel’s offensive ahead of a war cabinet meeting amid intense diplomacy to forge a truce and a hostage-release deal. He has long rejected Hamas’s demand for a permanent end to the conflict triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack. A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the war cabinet would ‘discuss a hostage release deal’ on Sunday. Before the meeting, Netanyahu’s office said Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, ‘continues to demand the end of the war, the withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip and leaving Hamas in place, so that it will be able to carry out the atrocities of October 7 again and again’.
‘Prime Minister Netanyahu strongly opposes this,’ a statement said. EU members Ireland and Spain, and also Norway, have said they will recognise a Palestinian state from Tuesday, drawing furious Israeli condemnation. ‘In order to make peace, we need a strong Palestinian Authority, not a weaker one,’ said the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who met in Brussels with Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa. Mustafa, whose government is based in the occupied West Bank, said the ‘first priority’ was to support the people in Gaza, especially through a ceasefire, and then ‘rebuilding the institutions of the Palestinian Authority’ in the territory after Hamas seized it from the PA in 2007.
The Israeli official had said Saturday that ‘there is an intention to renew these talks this week’ after negotiations involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators stalled in early May. Around 80 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, severe hunger is widespread and UN officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine. Hamas triggered the war with its October 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,984 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. As the war grinds on, the families of hostages still held by militants have piled pressure on Netanyahu to secure a deal to free them. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel must take over Rafah to eliminate Hamas’ remaining battalions and achieve ‘total victory’ over the militants, who recently regrouped in other parts of Gaza where the military has operated.
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