Sánchez Says Spain Won’t Recognise Changes To 1967 Israeli-Palestinian Border Lines

 May 29, 2024 

By Fernando Heller

(EurActiv) — Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday (28 May) that Madrid will not admit changes to the 1967 border lines that were not previously agreed between Israel and the Palestinian state, which Madrid officially recognised on the same day in a coordinated move with Ireland and Norway.

“The State of Palestine must be viable, with the West Bank and Gaza connected by a corridor and with East Jerusalem as its capital and unified under the legitimate government of the Palestinian National Authority (…),” Sánchez said in a statement.

“We will not recognise changes to the 1967 border lines other than those agreed by the parties,” he said.

According to him, this would be in line with UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 as well as with the position of the EU.

While describing the decision to recognise Palestinian statehood as “historic”, the Spanish prime minister expressed his desire to have “the best possible relationship” with Israel and reiterated his “categorical” rejection of the Hamas militants, who do not believe in Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace.

Israel is “a friendly people whom we respect, whom we appreciate and with whom we want to have the best possible relationship”, Sánchez stressed.

Recognising Palestinian statehood for Madrid would have the sole objective of helping Israelis and Palestinians to achieve peace, he added.

“It is not only a question of historical justice with the legitimate aspirations of the people of Palestine; it is also a peremptory necessity if we all want to achieve peace and it is the only way to advance towards the solution that we all recognize as the only possible way to achieve a peaceful future, that of a Palestinian state living side by side with the State of Israel in peace and security,” Sánchez said.

Díaz qualifies offensive words towards Israel

Despite Sánchez’s conciliatory tone, Tel Aviv issued a harsh démarche against Spain on the same day. Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Sánchez of being “complicit in inciting Jewish genocide” with the recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Katz also condemned Madrid for failing to remove Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz from office, after she stated last week that “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea”.

The political phrase, which has become a battle cry used by either side, is generally viewed as dismissing the right of the other to the land between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

For Hamas, this de facto means the elimination of the state of Israel, which lies between the two.

Díaz, who is also minister of labour and leader of the left-wing platform Sumar, the PSOE’s junior partner in government, maintains a tough stance on Israel, which she has accused of committing “genocide” in Gaza, following Hamas terror attacks in October 2023.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel’s military operation has so far killed more than 35,000 people, many of them civilians.

The Sumar leader last week released a controversial video in which she celebrated Madrid’s announcement of recognition of Palestinian statehood.´

After the protest from Tel Aviv and the Israeli embassy in Madrid, Díaz was forced to qualify her words.

“We have always had (in Sumar) the same position, the recognition of two states that share from the river to the sea; that share the economy, that share the rights and above all the future of peace,” she stated.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Photo Credit: La Moncloa

UAW 4811 SOLIDARITY WITH CEASEFIRE PROTESTERS 

UC student workers expand strike to two more campuses

The union escalated its standoff by walking off the job at UCLA and UC Davis


Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel University of California, Santa Cruz graduate students and other academic workers in the UAW 4811 union begin a strike and are joined by UCSC students for Justice in Palestine as they picket the main entrance to campus on Monday, May 20, 2024, in Santa Cruz, Calif. (Shmuel Thaler/The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP)


By CALMATTERS | CALmatters.org
PUBLISHED: May 28, 2024 
By Mikhail Zinshteyn | CalMatters

Nearly a third of the academic and graduate student workers of the University of California are on strike, after the union of 48,000 employees escalated its labor standoff by walking off the job at UCLA and UC Davis this morning.

With as many as 2,000 UC Santa Cruz graduate students and academic workers picketing since last Monday, today’s job action brings 12,000 more out of classrooms and laboratories, potentially crippling the university’s mission of educating the roughly 80,000 undergraduates at the three campuses just two weeks before students begin to take their end-of-quarter finals.

Workers, including teaching assistants, academic researchers and graders, are striking not over pay and benefits but instead over the UC’s response to pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested by police or suspended from their campuses. Some union members were arrested or suspended for their role in the protests. Core to the union’s demands is that the UC offer “amnesty for those who experienced arrest or are facing University discipline,” the union’s public writings state.

Some 60 academic workers began picketing at Royce Quad at UCLA by 9 a.m., where just weeks ago students at a large pro-Palestinian encampment were attacked by counter-protesters.

“UC, UC you’re no good, treat your workers like you should,” the picketing academic workers chanted, their ranks gradually growing as more striking workers arrived under a gray sky. “When free speech is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back,” went another chant, the rhythmic pulses of a snare drum accompanying the picketers, who grew to more than 200 by 10:30 a.m.

UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, Mary Osako, is critical of the strike. “Our talented students are getting ready for finals, and UCLA’s focus is doing whatever we can to support them. They’re paying tuition and fees to learn, and we’re dismayed by deliberate outside disruptions that get in the way of that.

Origins of strike


UC’s Office of the President calls the strike illegal, saying that its contract with the union — itself the result of a six-week long strike in late 2022 — includes a no-strike provision. The union, UAW 4811, vehemently disagrees with that analysis, citing legal precedent that a union can strike over unfair labor practices that fall outside the scope of a union contract. It’s a view shared by at least one UCLA law professor.

Both sides have leaned heavily on the state’s Public Employment Relations Board to adjudicate their disputes.

Two days after police swept the encampments at UCLA and arrested scores of protesters, the union filed an unfair labor practice violation with the labor relations board. The union then filed similar violations after police cleared encampments at UC San Diego and UC Irvine that also led to arrests of protesters — and another alleging that the UC changed its disciplinary rules unilaterally to punish academic workers.

“By summoning the police to forcibly arrest and/or issuing interim suspensions to these employees, the University has violated their employee rights,“ the union wrote in one of its submissions to the labor relations board. The union says its workers were not only rallying against the war in Gaza but also seeking ways to remove academic research funding sources tied to the U.S. military. Workers also oppose “the discrimination and hostile work environment directed towards Palestinian, Muslim, and pro-Palestine Jewish employees and students.”

Unlike a systemwide strike, this “stand up” strike will pursue labor stoppages at certain campuses, a strategy employed by Detroit autoworkers in their successful campaign for higher compensation last year. The approach is meant to apply gradual pressure to management. Union leaders have maintained that if UC management wants to stop the spread of the strike, it should come to the table with the union to remedy the unfair labor practice charges.

While the strike is technically distinct from the larger protest movement against the war, the two movements are related. Last Thursday, several hundred UCLA members of the UAW 4811 held a rally in support of their impending strike. Moments later, they joined a student-led protest demanding that the UC call for a ceasefire and divest from weapons manufacturers and the Israeli economy. That same day, protesters erected a short-lived encampment and temporarily took over a campus building before being pushed out by police.

It was a clear sign that, despite hundreds of arrests in May, thousands of students, union members and some faculty remain passionate about their pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Legality of strike debated

Almost 20,000 of the union’s 48,000 represented workers voted on whether to strike two weeks ago, and nearly 80% of those who did vote approved the strike authorization. Only union members can vote.

The UC sought an injunction to legally halt the strike, but the labor relations board wrote last week that UC hadn’t established that an injunction is “just and proper.” The union hailed the ruling. However, the board wrote that it’s leaving UC’s request open in the event the university provides better evidence.

In a partial victory for the university, the board issued a complaint that the union “failed to provide adequate advance notice of its work stoppage, and failed and refused to meet and confer in good faith.” The UC press office, in announcing the board’s response, wrote that the labor board “found enough evidence to suggest that a violation may have occurred, and further examination is warranted.”

The union argues in its latest unfair labor practice violation that the UC unilaterally implemented a disciplinary policy that affects UAW 4811 workers. The union seeks an order telling the UC to “cease and desist from unilaterally changing the terms and conditions of employment related to discipline.”

A spokesperson for the UC Office of the President disputes that characterization, writing that these policies aren’t new and reaffirm existing rules. The spokesperson, Heather Hansen, sought to invalidate the central thrust of the union’s demands, writing to CalMatters last week: “By requesting amnesty, UAW is asking the University not to follow its processes but rather to make an exception for its members so that they are not subject to the same accountability measures applicable to all other members of the UC community.”

Effect on student learning

Not all unionized workers have jobs with labor to withhold. Some are paid with fellowships to advance their own research. But most perform a job duty that’s integral to the academic mission of the university. Systemwide, about 20,000 workers are graduate student teaching assistants, tutors or other instructional assistants.

Graduate students teach classes, especially introductory courses, run discussion sections and grade student work.

Last week, about 60% to 70% of UC Santa Cruz workers who could withhold their labor did, estimated Rebecca Gross, the unit chair of the union at the campus.

On the social media platform Reddit, individuals identifying themselves as UCLA students wrote that some of their discussion sessions are being canceled and that some of their courses are moving online. It “is tragic for me bc (sic) I learn 80% of the material from discussion and problem solving sessions,” wrote one poster.

Who’ll pick up the work that the striking workers won’t do is an open question. The governing body of UCLA faculty sent a message to professors that “faculty members cannot be required to take on additional responsibilities for teaching related to a work stoppage.”

Brandon Cruz, a fourth-year undergraduate student who’s changing his major to sociology, said that a teacher’s assistant who was supposed to lead a political communications class today didn’t, but still told students she’d help them with their projects that are due today.

“She’s supporting the strike,” he said, “but she’s also supporting her students because she feels like it’s unfair for her to drop us at the last two weeks of the quarter.”

Another undergraduate, Nico Diamond, said that one of her teaching assistants plans to continue teaching an environmental economics class. He told the class that’s because he’s an international student and worries he’d risk losing his visa for withholding labor during a strike that university officials view as unlawful.

“I’m never annoyed by the strikes,” Diamond said, who sat writing an essay at a campus picnic bench in earshot of the picketers. “The strikers are not getting in people’s faces. Noise is noise, it’s L.A., it’s nothing new.”

But the security build-up since protesters first established the campus encampment, that’s been a source of fatigue, she said. “I put the blame on the administration for calling for more security.”

Graduate worker anger

Most protesters, including UAW 4811 members, who were arrested were cited for failing to follow police orders to disperse. At UCLA, administrators sent a notice to students and protesters on April 30, a day before police cleared the encampment, that “the established encampment is unlawful and violates university policy” and asked the participants to leave the area or face sanctions. The notice also said that “law enforcement is prepared to arrest individuals, in accordance with applicable law.”

The notice added that “for students, those sanctions could include disciplinary measures such as interim suspension that, after proper due process through the student conduct process, could lead to dismissal.”

Members of the encampment replied the same day, writing in part “We will continue to remain here steadfast in our demands.”

That night, counter-protesters attacked those in the encampment with pepper spray, wooden sticks and at least one firework as police stood by for hours and made no arrests. Local and national news outlets brought around-the-clock coverage to the violence.

The next afternoon, police ordered members of the encampment to disperse. Hours after those orders, police arrested more than 200 people.

“In contrast to the lack of police response to the violent attack by anti-Palestine counterprotesters on April 30, 2024, the University summoned a massive number of police officers on the evening of May 1, 2024 for the purpose of ejecting and arresting the employees engaged in peaceful protest in the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment,” union lawyers wrote in one of the unfair labor practice violations submitted to the state labor relations board.


Kai Shi, a mathematics doctoral student at UCLA, pushed back on the reason to call the police in the first place. “Just because the police say it’s unlawful doesn’t mean that they’re right,” he said.

“The unlawful assembly is an excuse by the university to shut us down,” Shi argued.

UC San Diego issued at least 40 suspensions in the middle of May related to the pro-Palestinian protests, the union wrote in one of its unfair labor practice violations. “Such extreme disciplinary measures in response to peaceful protest activity suppress free expression of ideas and violate the First Amendment,” it read.

“We are standing up for justice in the workplace, in a way that directly affects not just us, but our students,” said Anny Viloria Winnett, the unit chair of the local UCLA union chapter.

She said the union is taking on a “fight for our ability to be safe on campus, our ability to have free speech and protest on our campus, but it’s also a fight that our students led … and we’re just a continuation of that.”

 Another senior State official resigns over Gaza, taking aim at aid

The official, Stacy Gilbert, resigned Tuesday. She told colleagues that the State Department was wrong to conclude Israel had not obstructed aid to Gaza.


By John Hudson and Michael Birnbaum

Updated May 28, 2024

A career State Department official involved in the Biden administration’s contentious debates over Israel’s conduct in Gaza resigned this week, citing disagreements with a recently published U.S. government report that claimed that Israel was not impeding humanitarian assistance to Gaza, two officials told The Washington Post.

The outgoing official, Stacy Gilbert, served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Gilbert sent an email to staff Tuesday explaining her view that the State Department was wrong to conclude that Israel had not obstructed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, officials who read the letter said.

The cause for resignation is unusual in that it speaks to internal dissent over a hotly disputed report that the Biden administration relied on to justify continuing to send billions of dollars of weapons to Israel.

Gilbert, through an associate, did not respond to a request for comment.

When asked about her resignation, a State Department spokesman said that “we have made clear we welcome diverse points of view and believe it makes us stronger.”

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel issue, said the department would continue to seek out a wide range of view points for the benefit of the policymaking process.

“On the day when the White House announced that the latest atrocity in Rafah did not cross its red line, this resignation demonstrates that the Biden Administration will do anything to avoid the truth,” Josh Paul, the first State Department official to resign over Gaza policy, wrote on LinkedIn after this article was published online.

“This is not just a story of bureaucratic complicity or ineptitude — there are people signing off on arms transfers, people drafting arms transfer approval memos, people turning a blind eye,” Paul wrote. People “who could be speaking up, people who have an awesome responsibility to do good, and a lifelong commitment to human rights — whose choice is to let the bureaucracy function as though it were business as usual.”

The report Gilbert objected to was published this month in response to a presidential memo known as NSM-20.

President Biden issued the memo in February after coming under pressure from congressional Democrats concerned about the rising death toll in Gaza. It required the State Department to assess whether Israel’s use of U.S. weapons in Gaza violated U.S. or international humanitarian law and included an examination of whether humanitarian aid had been deliberately obstructed.

The report — the product of weeks of discussion within the State and Defense departments — found that while “aid remains insufficient,” the United States does not “currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

Gilbert, whose views were echoed by the vast majority of aid and humanitarian organizations, said Israel was impeding the aid from reaching civilians in Gaza. Aid flows have continued to be constricted in the weeks since the report was issued. But the report found insufficient grounds to halt aid to Israel.

Heavy machinery is used to dispose of rotten eggs, which had spoiled this month as part of aid packages for Gaza while the Rafah border crossing remains closed. (Reuters)

The State Department spokesperson said that “we continue to press the government of Israel to avoid harming civilians and urgently expand humanitarian access to and inside Gaza. This includes facilitating provision of lifesaving assistance, allowing fuel entry, and ensuring safe freedom of movement for humanitarian workers.”

Along with Paul, a handful of Biden administration officials have resigned since the conflict began in October, including Annelle Sheline, who worked on human rights issues, and Hala Rharrit, one of the department’s Arabic-language spokespeople. Still more have expressed unhappiness with administration policy by sending cables via the internal dissent channel, a process intended to allow diplomats to articulate disagreement without fear of retribution.

After Rharrit resigned, she said that as the months of the conflict progressed, it became more clear that internal discussion about U.S.-Israel policy was unwelcome, unlike almost every other subject during her 18-year career at the State Department.

The Biden administration paused the transfer of some bombs and precision guidance kits to register its concerns over a potential large-scale invasion of Rafah. But it has left most weapons flows untouched and has said Israel’s actions in the crowded border city do not yet cross the president’s “red line” despite the rising death toll and increasing military operations.

Israeli airstrike that killed dozens in Rafah carried out using type of bomb supplied by US

Footage filmed by Palestinian journalist Alamuddin Sadiq at the scene of the strike appears to indicate which specific munition was used, 1,000 of which were supplied by the US to Israel in 2023.


By Sam Doak,

 OSINT producer

Sky News
Wednesday 29 May 2024

On the night of 26 May, an Israeli airstrike hit the neighbourhood of Tel al Sultan in Rafah.

At least 45 people were killed as structures in an area housing displaced Palestinians were set alight, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

Location of the strike

Image:Pic: Sky News and Planet Labs PBC

The affected area is less than 200 metres from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's compound in the north of Rafah.

Geolocated footage and satellite imagery shows the strike destroyed buildings immediately adjacent to a sign identifying Kuwaiti Al-Salam Camp 1.

While it is unclear whether the buildings are part of the camp, Kuwaiti Al-Salam Camp 1 is known to house Palestinians displaced by the ongoing conflict.

Over much of the conflict, the surrounding area has been occupied by tents and sheds housing displaced people. In recent weeks, the number of these structures has decreased as Palestinians fled in advance of Israel's ground offensive in Rafah.

Verifying footage

To build a picture of what happened immediately after the strike, Sky News verified numerous videos and photographs captured by those present.

Image:Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians in Tel al Sultan. Pic: Reuters

A sign and other distinctive features visible in footage recorded in the immediate aftermath allowed it to be matched to a daytime recording from the same scene.

Image:Footage of a man carrying a beheaded child (L) matched with a video of the same scene (R)

Landmarks visible in the daylight made it possible to determine the exact location of the strike, and verify pieces of footage recorded at night in the same place.

The footage ultimately verified by Sky News shows numerous bodies being pulled from the wreckage of destroyed buildings. In one video, a man can be seen carrying the body of a decapitated child.


Satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs PBC on 27 May shows four buildings were destroyed in this strike.

The Israeli account

In a statement given on 28 May, a senior Israeli military official claimed the deaths of civilians were the result of an attempt to kill two senior members of Hamas, and that the site is close to an area used to launch rockets.

According to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, two 17kg (37lb) munitions were used. Claiming that much of the destruction was caused by a subsequent fire that could not have been solely ignited by munitions of this size, Hagari stated that this was being investigated.

The weaponry used in this strike

Alamuddin Sadiq

Footage filmed by Palestinian journalist Alamuddin Sadiq at the scene of the strike appears to indicate which specific munition was used.

Recorded the day after the strike, the fragments resemble the tail section of a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB).

According to Rahul Udoshi, a weapons specialist at the defence intelligence company Janes, the fragment "appears to be tail section of GBU-39 SDB (of Israeli Air Force stock)." Noting the similarity, Udoshi pointed out "the screw and cut section next to that", which he described as an "exact match".

Comparison of munition fragments with reference image. Pic: Janes

Reviewing the same image, Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British army artillery officer and director of Chiron Resources, also concluded that it matched a GBU-39 SDB, describing the munition as "an advanced, state-of-the-art weapon".

According to Sipri Arms Transfers Database, Israel received 1,000 of these munitions from the US as recently as 2023. Bloomberg, reporting at the time, states that this delivery was accelerated following the 7 October Hamas attack.

Aerial footage

During his statement, Rear Admiral Hagari shared a video showing the strike filmed from above. Highlighting the specific buildings that were targeted, the video shows that out of the four destroyed, these were the second furthest east and the structure immediately to its west.

People visible in IDF footage of area targeted. Pic: IDF

On the loss of innocent life, Hagari said "our aerial surveillance was filming prior to the strike in order to minimise civilian harm".

In the footage shared by the Israeli military, Sky News identified four people moving in the immediate vicinity of the targeted building in the seconds before it was hit.

Humanitarian zone

Prior to its ground offensive in Rafah, Israel produced a map marking an evacuation area and humanitarian zone.

 Sky News

The area targeted lies between these two zones, in the neighbourhood numbered by the Israeli government as 2372.

No Safe Zone: Satellite Images show Israel targeting Rafah refugee camps

Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu has described the airstrike that killed dozens of people at Rafah refugee camp as a “tragic mistake”.

Displaced Palestinians inspect their tents destroyed by Israel's bombardment in Rafah city. (AP photo)


Bidisha Saha
New Delhi

May 28, 2024 
Posted By: Anuja Jha

In ShortIsrael's attack on Rafah continues despite world court's order
Recent attack targeted tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, killing 45
The attack has drawn global outrage, Israeli PM called it a 'tragic mistake'

Blood, chaos, and screams engulfed Gaza’s southern city of Rafah once again after an Israeli airstrike hit one of its largest camps for displaced Palestinians. The death toll from the bombing in the designated “safe zone” reached 45 on Tuesday. The majority of victims were women and children.

The strike goes against a ruling by the top UN court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which ordered Israeli forces to stop their military offensive in Rafah.


Now India Today has located the site of the recent airstrike at Kuwait Peace Camp. The findings were confirmed by satellite images sourced from Planet Labs PBC which showed smoke billowing from near the camp which lies just about 300 meter north of the IDF-declared humanitarian zone.



In December last year, IDF released a map that labeled the area near the UN facility as a ‘humanitarian zone’. The Kuwait Al-Salem Camp wasn’t set up at that time. The IDF also released a map where they've broken Gaza's area into numbered "blocks". The block where Monday’s strike happened lies in block ‘2372’, while it was previously marked as a safe zone, it's not currently in the humanitarian zone marked by IDF.


Footage of the aftermath shared on social media showed chaotic scenes.


In one video, the lifeless body of a man was seen being dragged by the legs out of the flames. “He’s dead, he’s dead,” a rescuer says before moving on to find others. In another video, a man wept as he held up the headless body of a toddler for the camera. Women shrieked in grief as children peered into the fire. A man with a bloodied face stood in apparent shock, examining his wounds with one hand, as he held an infant with blood-stained clothes in the other arm. One of the bodies pulled out of the fire was charred-stiff.

By Monday morning, the camp was in ruins with small fires still burning. Men and boys gathered around, rummaging through the burned and smoking wreckage for food and their belongings as drones hovered above. One of the structures still standing was a sign that read: “Kuwait Peace Camp 1.”

Children and women living in makeshift tents were among those killed, according to a post on X from UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

The ICJ ordered Israel to “immediately halt” its military operation in Rafah, and any other action in the city, “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The IDF said the attack was conducted based on “prior intelligence” indicating that senior officials of Hamas’ West Bank wing were present at the site.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament on Monday that “something unfortunately went tragically wrong” with the airstrike. “We are investigating the incident and will reach conclusions because this is our policy,” he said.

This is not the first time that Israel has attacked a refugee camp. On May 24, the IDF also bombarded tents and refugee camps near Khan Younis which falls under the ‘humanitarian zone’. Remote sensing data from Planet Labs PBC shows over 800 camps set up in the area.



Planet images from May 18 show plumes of smoke rising from the Jabalia refugee camp. Numerous other structures used as civilian shelters have also been attacked in the past 10 days.



An Israeli airstrike on Al-Shaboura refugee camp in southern Gaza City on May 2 killed two young children and injured several other people, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza and the Kuwait Hospital in Rafah.
Worsening crisis

More than 85% of the Palestinian territory’s population had sought shelter in Rafah having fled fighting elsewhere, and a million people have been forced to move again since Israel’s ground operation began on May 6. Israeli ground troops have so far probed Rafah’s southern and eastern outskirts, rather than its overcrowded center.

Aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle, with the Rafah and nearby Kerem Shalom crossings effectively blocked. Humanitarian operations in Gaza face severe access restrictions, including the closure of key crossings, denied missions, and delays imposed by Israeli authorities.

According to Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between May 1 and 20, 183 humanitarian aid missions in Gaza were coordinated with Israeli authorities. Of the 51 missions to northern Gaza, only 37% were facilitated, while the rest were denied access, impeded, or canceled. In southern Gaza, of the 132 missions, only half were facilitated, with the other half denied access, impeded, or canceled.

International censure of Israel’s war against Hamas has grown steadily in tandem with the death toll and humanitarian crisis in the strip. Still, Israeli officials have repeatedly said that a ground operation in Rafah, where it believes Hamas’s leadership and four battalions of fighters are camped out with Israeli hostages, is necessary for “total victory”.

Friday’s order from the ICJ is binding, but not enforceable. Several countries called on Israel to obey the 13-2 majority decision in the wake of the Rafah strike.
International response

Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas in attempts to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages, said the Rafah casualties would complicate the protracted negotiations. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported later on Monday that Hamas had decided to pull out of the latest proposed talks over what its senior leadership described as a massacre.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was "outraged" over Israel's latest attacks. "These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians," he said on X.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the International Court of Justice ruling must be respected.

Over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's health ministry says. Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs based in the West Bank condemned "the heinous massacre." Egypt also condemned Israel's "deliberate bombing of the tents of displaced people", state media reported, describing it as a blatant violation of international law.

On Monday, the Israeli military said it was investigating reports of an exchange of fire between Israeli and Egyptian soldiers close to the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

Egypt's military spokesperson said that shooting near the Rafah crossing led to the killing of one person and authorities were investigating.

"On top of the hunger, on top of the starvation, the refusal to allow aid in sufficient volumes, what we witnessed last night is barbaric," Ireland's Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said.

Biden's blurred red lines under scrutiny after Rafah carnage

Danny KEMP
Tue, May 28, 2024

US President Joe Biden faces growing domestic and international pressure over Rafah (Mandel NGAN)

Joe Biden's red lines over Israel's assault on Rafah have kept shifting, but the US president faces growing pressure to take a firmer stance after a deadly strike in the Gazan city.

Despite global outrage over the attack in which 45 people were killed, the White House insisted on Tuesday that it did not believe Israel had launched the major operation that Biden has warned against.

John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesman, said that Biden had been consistent and was not "moving the stick" on what defined an all-out military offensive by key ally Israel.

But Biden faces a difficult balancing act both domestically and internationally over Gaza, especially in a year when the 81-year-old Democrat is locked in an election battle with Donald Trump.

"Biden wants to appear tough on Rafah, and has really tried to be stern with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu, but in an election year, his red lines are increasingly blurred," Colin Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Group, told AFP.

"I think he'll continue shifting those lines, ducking and weaving, largely in response to events on the ground."

- 'Smash into Rafah' -

Facing US campus protests over his support for Israel, Biden said earlier this month that he would not supply Israel with weapons for a major military operation in Rafah, and he halted a shipment of bombs.

Yet he has since taken no action even as Israel has stepped up air attacks and, as of Tuesday, moved tanks into central Rafah.

Instead, the White House has largely retreated to arguing about what does, and does not, constitute an invasion.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week there was "no mathematical formula" and said that "what we're going to be looking at is whether there is a lot of death and destruction."

At the White House on Tuesday, his colleague Kirby faced intense questioning over the Israeli strike, which sparked a fire at a displaced persons camp in which dozes of people burned to death.

Kirby said the deaths were "heartbreaking" and "horrific" but again said there would be no change in policy towards Israel.

"We have not seen them smash into Rafah," he said.

"We have not seen them go in with large units, large numbers of troops, in columns and formations in some sort of coordinated maneuver against multiple targets on the ground."

But internationally the pressure is growing on Biden, a self-described Zionist who has stuck by Netanyahu despite deep disagreements since the war began with the October 7 Hamas attack.

Questions are mounting over how long the United States can tolerate an Israeli assault on Rafah when the International Court of Justice -- the UN's top court, of which both the US and Israel are members -- ordered it to stop.

- 'Balancing act' -

Political pressure is also mounting on Biden at home.

Protests against his support for Israel have roiled university campuses across the United States, while many on the left wing of his Democratic Party also oppose his stance.

Republicans however have assailed Biden over what they say is his faltering support for Israel, with US House Speaker Mike Johnson inviting Netanyahu to address Congress.

"It is indeed a difficult balancing act," Gordon Gray, a former US ambassador who is now a professor at George Washington University, told AFP.

"Threading the proverbial needle -- as the Biden administration is apparently seeking to do -- will only disappoint voters who feel strongly about the issue one way or another."

Gray however said he believed Biden's decades-old support for Israel meant he would unlikely change his position, saying he was a "rare politician who is acting out of genuine conviction rather than for his own electoral benefit."

dk/bjt

US says Israel hasn't breached Biden's 'red line' despite Rafah massacre

President Biden has no plans to change his Israel policy following deadly weekend strike on Gaza's Rafah says White House, adding Washington does not believe Tel Aviv's actions in Rafah amount to full-scale invasion



A view shows a UN vehicle damaged in an Israeli strike in Rafah on May 28, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled / Photo: Reuters

Israel has not violated President Joe Biden's "red line" for withholding future offensive arms transfers because it has not, and it appears to Washington that Tel Aviv will not launch a full-scale ground invasion into southern Gaza's Rafah city, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Kirby on Tuesday condemned the killing of dozens of civilians as "heartbreaking" and "horrific" from an Israeli air strike in Rafah on the weekend that left nearly 50 Palestinians dead and 250 wounded, but said US is not planning any policy changes as a result of the Israeli actions.

"Everything that we can see tells us that they are not moving into a major ground operation in population centers in the center of Rafah," Kirby said, adding "we certainly condemn the loss of life here."

He added that the US was monitoring the results of Tel Aviv's investigation into the what Israeli government said was a "precision strike".

Shifting narratives from Tel Aviv on the massacre has sparked interest.

Initially, Israeli occupation forces said they carried out "precision strikes" with "precision munitions" on Hamas members in Rafah where displaced Palestinians were taking refuge. After global condemnations, Israeli hawkish PM Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "tragic mistake." Now, Israel claims the civilian killings were the result of a secondary explosion after its strike on two Hamas operatives.

"We understand that this strike did kill two senior Hamas heads who are directly responsible for attacks," Kirby said, appearing to give credit to new Israeli version of the story. "We've also said many times Israel must take every precaution possible to do more to protect innocent life."

The pictures and videos of dismembered and charred bodies, some of them belonging to babies, raised an international hue and cry as tens of thousands of people took to streets in Western cities to protest.

US has not paused arms shipments to Israel

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, meanwhile, told reporters that Israel's weeks-old invasion in Rafah was still on a "far different" scale than the assaults Israeli military waged on other cities in Gaza earlier in the seven-month war.


Miller said he had no direct knowledge of reported accounts from witnesses on the ground on Tuesday that Israeli tanks had entered the centre of Gaza, and noted Israel had denied responsibility for a new Israeli strike outside of Rafah on Tuesday that killed dozens.


Israeli shelling and air strikes killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside of Rafah overnight and on Tuesday — pummeling the same area where Israeli carried out Sunday's massacre.


Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said she did not know whether it was a US-provided weapon that was used in the deadly Sunday strike that killed the dozens of civilians at a displacement camp.


"I have to refer you to the Israelis to speak to that," Singh said.


Singh said the US has not paused shipments to Israel in the wake of the strike. "Security assistance continues to flow."



TRT WORLD

Most of those fleeing Rafah have poured into a "humanitarian zone" that is centered on al Mawasi, a largely barren strip of coastal land.

Genocidal war

Israel has killed at least 36,096 Palestinians — including babies, children, and women — and wounded 81,136 in its 235-day war on Gaza, while some 10,000+ people are feared buried under the debris of bombed homes.

Israel's bombardment in Rafah has caused more than one million Palestinians to flee, most of whom had already been displaced in the war waged by Israel. They now seek refuge in squalid tent camps and other war-ravaged areas, where they lack shelter, food, water and other essentials for survival, the UN says.

Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the agency known as UNRWA, told a UN press conference on Tuesday that the agency's teams on the ground say heavy Israeli bombardments again took place overnight including in the area north of Rafah home to the UN main offices as well as UNRWA's offices. Most of its staff didn't make it to work and were "packing and moving," she said.

Israel has waged a brutal invasion on Gaza since Hamas' October 7 blitz on Israeli military and settlements that were once Arab villages and farms.

Hamas says its raid that surprised its arch-enemy was orchestrated in response to Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, illegal settler violence in occupied West Bank and to put Palestine question "back on the table."

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside Gaza, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometres from the Gaza fence.

At some places they are said to have gunned down many soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster response.

The hours-long attack and Israeli military's haphazard response resulted in the killing of more than 1,130 people, Israeli officials and local media say.

Palestinian fighters took more than 250 hostages and presently 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli army says are dead, some of them killed in indiscriminate Israeli strikes.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in the enclave.

In its latest order, breached by Tel Aviv multiple times, the court ruled that Israel should: "Immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AA

IDF releases preliminary results of investigation into Rafah strike - IAF munitions not to blame for fire

Israeli military promises 'investigation will be swift, comprehensive and transparent'

All Israel News Staff | Published: May 28, 2024 

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Palestinians inspect damage after a fire in the Al-Mawasi area, west of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, May 27, 2024. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari gave a press conference in English on Tuesday evening, where he reiterated that the Israeli military is investigating the causes of the fire that broke out after the Israeli Air Force (IAF) airstrike that killed two senior Hamas commanders on Sunday night. 

In the briefing, Hagari said the IDF is also investigating the possibility that Hamas weapons stored in the area of the strike were responsible for causing the fire, which spread to an area of tents killing a number of civilians. 

“On Sunday, we eliminated senior Hamas terrorists in a targeted strike, on a compound used by Hamas in Rafah,” Hagari said. “The strike was based on precise intelligence that indicated that these terrorists, who were responsible for orchestrating and executing terror attacks against Israelis, were meeting inside this structure we targeted.” 

Hagari continued, “Sadly, following the strike, due to unforeseen circumstances, a fire ignited, taking the lives of Gazan civilians nearby. Despite our efforts to minimize civilian casualties during the strike, the fire that broke out was unexpected and unintended.” 

Hagari called the deaths of Palestinian civilians a “devastating incident, which we did not expect.” According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, 45 people were killed in the incident. 

Hagari also presented satellite imagery from the site, saying the IDF “targeted a closed structure away from the tent area. There are no tents in the immediate vicinity.” 

“Contrary to reports, we conducted the strike outside the area that we designated as a humanitarian area and called civilians to evacuate to. Our strike was over a kilometer and a half away from the al-Mawasi humanitarian area,” he noted, contradicting reports by the Palestinian Authority and some NGOs that the IAF had struck within al-Mawasi. 

Hagari also denied reports that the IAF used a 2,000-pound bomb. 

“The strike was conducted using two munitions with small warheads, suited for this targeted strike. We are talking about munitions with 17 kilograms (35 lbs) of explosive material,” Hagari explained, stating that “this is the smallest munitions that our jets can use.” 

The United States had previously raised concerns about Israel's use of large munitions in crowded urban conditions.

“Following this strike, a large fire ignited, for reasons still being investigated. Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” Hagari noted. 

Hagari said the IDF is “looking into all possibilities, including the option that weapons stored in a compound next to our target, which we did not know of, may have ignited as a result of the strike.” 

Noting that Hamas has been operating in the Rafah area since Oct. 7, Hagari showed an image of Hamas rocket launchers only 43 meters (about 140 feet) from the location of the strike. He said that Hamas used the launchers in the Oct. 7 attacks. 

The IDF is looking into “footage, documented by Gazans on the night of the strike, posted on social media, which appeared to show secondary explosions,” Hagari added, and said this could indicate “that there may have been weapons in the area.” 

The IDF also released a recording of a phone call in which Gaza residents discussed “the possibility that weapons stored in a nearby compound caught fire.” 

Hagari acknowledged the tragic nature of the incident, saying, “We took a number of steps prior to the strike to avoid civilian casualties. Aerial surveillance, using specific munitions to minimize collateral damage, delaying the attack to further assess the expected civilian presence, and other means.” 

“Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza, which is why we convey deep sorrow for this tragic loss of life.” 

Nikki Haley Visits Israel And Signs Artillery Shells With Callous Messages

Paige Skinner
Tue, May 28, 2024 

Danny Danon, a member of Israel's parliament, and Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visit a home Monday on Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel that had been torched by Hamas. A quarter of Nir Oz residents were killed or kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 in attacks that sparked Israel's retaliatory strikes on Gaza, which have so far left an estimated 35,000 Palestinians dead. 

Maya Alleruzzo/Associated PressMore

Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley visited Israel over Memorial Day weekend and signed her name on Israeli artillery shells as a show of support for the country’s war with Gaza, where an estimated 35,000 Palestinians have been killed so far.

Haley, a former U.N. ambassador, traveled with Danny Danon, a member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to an Israel Defense Forces post and interacted with soldiers serving on the northern border with Lebanon. Danon posted photos on social media of Haley signing the artillery shells and including the messages “Finish them!” and “America loves Israel!”

“This is what my friend, the former ambassador, Nikki Haley wrote today about a shell during a visit to an artillery post on the northern border,” Danon wrote on social media, according to Google Translate.

Though it’s not totally clear where the bombs are intended to be used, the move was decried as insensitive as Israel attacks Rafah in its ongoing campaign in Gaza. Airstrikes on Sunday killed an estimated 50 refugees who were sheltering in tents in Rafah after being evacuated from other parts of the Gaza Strip. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the airstrikes “a tragic mistake.”

On Tuesday, Haley posted photos of the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel on social media with the caption, “No other country would accept this, Israel should not either.”

Haley also met Monday with Israeli survivors of the Oct. 7 attack, which left an estimated 1,190 people dead and about 240 taken hostage. She told reporters in Israel that America should not withhold weapons from the nation.

“America needs to do whatever Israel needs and stop telling them how to fight this war,” Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, said. “Until you’ve lived it, you can’t say how to fight it. You’re either a friend or you’re not a friend.”

After dropping out of the 2024 presidential race in March, Haley endorsed former President Donald Trump last week, despite earlier having called Trump “unhinged,” “diminished” and not fit to be president.



Former US presidential candidate visits Sderot, says US must not withhold weapons from Israel

Associated Press Videos
Updated Mon, May 27, 2024 



Nikki Haley, former presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N, said on Monday that the Washington should support Israel and not withhold weapons.

Opinion

Nikki Haley Signs Her Name on Israeli Bombs—Alongside Sick Message

Hafiz Rashid
Tue, May 28, 2024 



Nikki Haley, former presidential candidate turned Trump endorser, spent Memorial Day not commemorating fallen American servicemembers but visiting Israel as it conducts a brutal massacre in Gaza.


On Monday, Haley posted pictures from a visit to southern Israel, where she met with survivors from Hamas’s attack on October 7. Haley told reporters that the United States “needs to do whatever Israel needs and stop telling them how to fight this war.”


She also traveled to Israel’s northern border with a member of the Israeli Knesset, Danny Dannon, who posted pictures to his own X account on Tuesday with the text “Finish them!” The post also included a picture of Haley signing Israeli artillery shells with the message: “Finish them! America loves Israel!”


Tweet screenshot

Dannon’s post also included, in Hebrew, a message alluding to military strikes against southern Lebanon, referencing two Lebanese cities, according to Google Translate.


“This is what my friend, the former ambassador, Nikki Haley wrote today about a shell during a visit to an artillery post on the northern border,” Dannon wrote.


“The time has come to change the equation—the residents of Tyre and Sidon will evacuate, the residents of the north will return.

“The IDF can win!”

One post from an Israeli peace activist suggested that Haley visited West Bank settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.

Tweet screenshot

Leaving aside the optics of signing bombs when Israel is facing judgment from the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes in Gaza, appearing to endorse military strikes against another country flies in the face of America’s efforts to avoid a wider war in the Middle East. On Monday, an Israeli strike targeting a motorcycle in southern Lebanon landed outside of a hospital, killing the motorcycle driver and a hospital security guard. But more explicitly, Haley is endorsing Israel’s war in Gaza, which has officially killed at least 36,096 people, including 15,000 children, figures that probably don’t include Israel’s latest assault on Rafah.

Outrage after 45 reportedly killed in Israeli strike near Rafah

DPA
Mon, May 27, 2024 

General view of tents in which displaced Palestinians take refuge in, next to the Egyptian border with the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. An Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah hit tents housing displaced people, Palestinian medics said on 27 May evening. The Palestinian Red Crescent said on X that there were "numerous" people killed and injured in the bombardment north-west of Rafah. 

Abed Rahim Khatib/dpaMore
The Hamas-run health authority in Gaza on Monday said 45 people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli airstrike that hit tents housing displaced people near the southern city of Rafah.

Most of the victims of the airstrike were women and children, the health authority said, describing the incident as a "massacre."

The information could not initially be independently verified, but the Palestinian Red Crescent earlier said on the social media platform X that there were "numerous" people killed and injured in the bombardment north-west of Rafah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, that Israel was investigating "an incident."

"In Rafah, we have evacuated about one million civilians," Netanyahu said on Monday.

"Tragically, despite our immense efforts to avoid harming non-combatants, an incident occurred yesterday. We are investigating it thoroughly and will learn from it, as is our policy and longstanding conduct."

"For us, any non-combatant hurt is a tragedy, for Hamas, it is a strategy," Netanyahu stated. "That is the core difference."

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said via X that two senior officials of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were killed in the airstrike.

"The strike was carried out against legitimate targets under international law, through the use of precise munitions and on the basis of precise intelligence that indicated Hamas' use of the area," the IDF said in a statement.

"The IDF is 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 statement added.

The strike came just days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ordered Israel to halt its assault on Rafah.

The incident sparked international horror and outrage.

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday, following a request by Algeria supported by Slovenia, diplomats said.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the airstrikes "which killed scores of innocent civilians who were only seeking shelter from this deadly conflict," he wrote on X.

"There is no safe place in Gaza. This horror must stop."

Meanwhile, an exchange of fire between Israeli and Egyptian troops near the border to the Gaza Strip also caused new concerns that the war could escalate.

An Egyptian soldier was killed, an Egyptian military spokesman confirmed on Monday.

It is the first publicly known fatality in the ranks of the Egyptian military since the start of the Gaza war almost eight months ago. Israel's army confirmed an exchange of fire and said the incident was being investigated.

The situation at the Rafah border crossing has become increasingly tense. Israeli troops recently took control of the crossing on the Palestinian side as well as a border strip between Egypt and Gaza.

Aid organizations report dozens dead in Israeli strike

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that the air raid hit a designated humanitarian zone for those who had been forced to evacuate Rafah due to the Israeli fighting.

The aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that a medical facility it supports in the area treated dozens of wounded, while more than 15 dead people were brought to their trauma stabilization point.

"We are horrified by this deadly event, which shows once again that nowhere is safe. We continue to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza," MSF said on X.

Arab countries react angrily

Several Arab countries on Monday condemned the Israeli airstrike.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the "deliberate bombing of displaced people's tents in the Palestinian city of Rafah" was a "new and blatant violation of the provisions of international law."

Qatar also condemned the attack as a "grave violation of international laws that will aggravate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Strip."

The Qatari Foreign Ministry expressed concern that the latest strike would complicate ongoing mediation efforts and obstruct a permanent ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas confirmed to dpa that it was suspending ceasefire negotiations which were expected to restart this week.

In separate statements, Jordan and Kuwait condemned "war crimes" committed by Israel in Gaza and urged the international community to compel Israel to adhere to the ICJ ruling on Rafah.

Germany calls strike 'a mistake'

German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said the airstrike was presumably "a mistake" and again defended Israel's "right to defend itself within the framework of international law."

Asked about allegations of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, Hebestreit said that the German government would withhold judgement.

"The conclusion as to whether this is a war crime in terms of international law is something that must be left to lawyers who know the exact facts," Hebestreit said in Berlin.

If there is evidence of such a crime, the German government would certainly condemn it, Hebestreit said.

World leaders condemn Israeli airstrike in Rafah

French President Emmanuel Macron was among the leaders calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and full compliance with international law.

"These operations must stop," wrote an "outraged" Macron on X. "There are no safe zones for Palestinian civilians in Rafah."

The "devastating images" following the attack were "heartbreaking," a US State Department spokesperson said.

"We are actively engaging the IDF and partners on the ground to assess what happened, and understand that the IDF is conducting an investigation."

"We are horrified by strikes that killed Palestinian civilians in Rafah," Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly wrote on X.

"Israel's strikes have had horrific and unacceptable consequences," Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong wrote.

The war in Gaza was triggered by the massacre of more than 1,200 people by terrorists from Hamas and other militant groups on October 7.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive. International criticism of Israel has grown as the death toll among Palestinians has increased. It currently stands at over 35,000 people killed, according to Hamas authorities in Gaza.

Palestinians inspect their destroyed tents after an Israeli air strike, which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries, in the Al-Mawasi area, which was bombed with a number of missiles on the tents of displaced people west of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa

Palestinians inspect their destroyed tents after an Israeli air strike, which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries, in the Al-Mawasi area, which was bombed with a number of missiles on the tents of displaced people west of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
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Egyptian soldier killed in shoot-out with Israeli forces in Gaza

Nataliya Vasilyeva
Mon, May 27, 2024 

Egyptian soldiers at the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. A fatal shoot-out was reported with Israeli forces there - Kerolos Salah/AFP via Getty


An Egyptian soldier was killed and several more injured in a shoot-out with Israeli forces at the border with Gaza in an incident that both parties have tried to play down.

The shooting occurred at the Rafah crossing that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) captured earlier in May.

The Egyptian army was conducting an investigation on Monday afternoon, an army spokesman said.

No Israeli casualties were reported.

The Rafah border crossing. Authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of an Egyptian soldier - Yousef Masoud/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

Israeli media initially reported that the shoot-out started from the Egyptian side which triggered an Israeli response.

The Al Araby news channel, however, insisted that Israeli soldiers opened fire first.

The IDF said on Monday it was looking into the incident and consulting with the Egyptians.


It comes after an Israeli air strike on Sunday night hit a tent camp full of displaced Palestinians in the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah, killing scores, including women and children.

The shoot-out could further sour the relations between Israel and Egypt as Cairo recently indicated that it is considering downgrading ties with its neighbour over the war in Gaza.

Egyptian officials, however, stopped short of saying that they would be reviewing the peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of regional security.

The border fence at Rafah, where there are tense scenes as Israeli forces hunt for terrorists - Haitham Imad/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The Rafah crossing was the crucial lifeline for delivering aid into Gaza before it was shut down following the Israeli capture of the area.

The traffic jam on the Egyptian side was recently reported to be stretching for 28 miles.

Israel subsequently said it was ready to allow it to open but Egypt insisted that it would not agree for the crossing to operate unless it was under Palestinian control.

Israeli media reported that Israel was looking for a temporary solution to reopen Rafah including bringing in foreign security companies to run it.