Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a “tragic mistake” was made in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that set fire to a tent camp housing displaced Palestinians.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a “tragic mistake” was made in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that set fire to a camp housing displaced Palestinians and, according to local officials, killed at least 45 people.

The strike only added to the surging international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamas, with even its closest allies expressing outrage at civilian deaths. Israel insists it adheres to international law even as it faces scrutiny in the world’s top courts, one of which last week demanded that it halt the offensive in Rafah.

“Despite our utmost efforts not to harm innocent civilians, last night there was a tragic mistake,” Netanyahu said Monday in an address to Israel’s parliament. “We are investigating the incident and will obtain a conclusion because this is our policy.”

Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene in the northwestern neighborhood of Tel al-Sultan, said rescuers “pulled out people who were in an unbearable state.”

“We pulled out children who were in pieces. We pulled out young and elderly people. The fire in the camp was unreal,” he said.

  • @[email protected]English
    40•6 months ago
    is war justified?
what is civilian to military kill ratio (basically to see if civilians are killed without care)
what are the goals of the war, what are post war plans

    For the first question, I do not know how anyone with straight face can say that the war is not justified when a neighbor attacks you and purposely and barbarously kills 1300 people and takes about 200 hostages.

    For those of us with calendars that go back past October 7th the question about justification is a lot more complicated. Don’t forget that Israel has killed more than 10x as many women and children than were killed on October 7th, and have destroyed medical support and denied food and housing to the CIVILIAN population of Gaza as retribution. Also, Israel continues to colonize Palestine violently both as the government and as settler groups supported by the Israeli government.

    If you want to talk retribution, guess what led to October 7th? Both sides are doing horrible shit, but one side has enough power to stop the current ongoing atrocity against the other side’s civilian population and that side it Israel. If they stopped attacking civilians in the ‘safe zones’ and actually let aid and food then I might have some sympathy for them.

    For the second quested, it is urban warfare, and if anyone cares to check, the ratio of 10 to 1 (civilian to military) is quite typical. In this war, Israel achieves ratio of better than 2 to 1, which says to me that IDF is really careful not to kill civilians unnecessarily.

    Yeah, so careful they murdered a Reuters journalist across the border in Lebanon with a tank.