Were closing our live coverage of the Gaza war for today. Thanks for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more news updates and analysis. Goodnight!
Ezzedine Chahine, an anesthesiologist from the Martyrs of al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, shares his account of treating victims from Israel's attack on the al-Barkasat camp for displaced persons in Rafah.
"Most of the wounded coming from Rafah were in a severe condition, with burns. Some had more than 50 percent of their bodies burned. It seems that special rockets were used to inflict these burns. We know which weapons were used, based on the wounds. Many of the wounded passed through the operating theater. For most of them, if they didn't die on the spot, they'll die in the next few days.
"In the past, the Rafah crossing was still open and a few cases, very few in number, especially the most delicate ones, were able to leave the enclave to be treated. There were delegations from several organizations and countries, medical teams and others, supporting us in our work. They brought us medical equipment and certain medicines. That's all over now. The Rafah crossing has been closed: no one can get in or out."
Internal Security Forces (ISF) arrested at least one protester during a demonstration held in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza outside of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut today, according to local media reports and the Associated Press.
An ISF source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were around 70 to 80 people present at the protests and that he believed people may have been temporarily detained, not arrested. Local media says those taken by the police were later released.
The protesters were also demanding that Egyptian authorities open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, where deliveries of aid are beginning to rot following the Israeli army's seizure of the Palestinian side of the crossing and Egypt's refusal to operating the crossing so long as the seizure persists.
The United States urged Israel to take every precaution to protect civilians after "devastating images" from a military strike in Rafah that killed dozens of Palestinians, Reuters reports.
"Israel has a right to go after Hamas, and we understand this strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians," a National Security Council spokesperson said. "But as we’ve been clear, Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians.
"We are actively engaging the [Israeli army] and partners on the ground to assess what happened, and understand that the [Israeli army] is conducting an investigation."
Some claims, including from the Palestinian ambassador to London, say that it was 2,000-pound unguided American-made bombs that were used in the attack on the camp, which reportedly involved seven to eight strikes.
Hundreds of Israelis are calling for an end to the war on Gaza in protests currently underway in Haifa, northern Israel, in central Tel Aviv square, and in Jerusalem, Haaretz reports.
In Tel Aviv, where over 100 protesters are demanding an immediate cease-fire, some were physically assaulted by a counter-protester who showed up in the square — there are reportedly no police present.
In Haifa, around 250 people are calling for a cease-fire. Two protesters were arrested by police, who also confiscated a Palestinian flag and signs that read "Stop the massacre," and This is what genocide is."
In Jerusalem, around 100 people have gathered, calling for Israel to cease its war on Gaza, Haaretz reports that counter-protesters destroyed a banner reading "Stop the war."
Palestinians put out a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced people, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 27, 2024. (Credit: Mohammed Sale/Reuters)
In a message posted on his X account, Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat gave details of the massacre caused by the Israeli strike that killed 45 people in a camp for the internally displaced in Rafah last night.
"People were looking for the injured using their phone flashlights. Fathers were desperately looking for their children's remains with a phone flashlight, parents were using their bare hands collecting their children’s body parts. People were trying to put out the fire using sand since Israel cut access to water, it’s a tragedy after a tragedy. The Israeli barbaric forces have no limit to their crimes," Chbat wrote.
Heart-wrenching videos of charred bodies, burning tents, and the sounds of screams in Rafah, southern Gaza, have circulated online since Sunday evening, following several Israeli strikes on al-Barkasat camp for the displaced. The attacks killed 45 people, some of whom were reportedly "burned alive," according to the most recent statements from the enclave.
What are the details of this attack, which has roused an outcry of condemnation from all over the world?
Islamic Jihad announced the death of one of its fighters, Mohammad Mahmoud Sleiman, aged 30. According to sources cited by our correspondent in the region, Sleiman was killed in an Israeli strike in Bint Jbeil that occurred around the same time this morning as the strike that targeted a motorcycle near the Salah Ghandour hospital.
This brings the total number of members of Palestinian factions killed in southern Lebanon to 30, since the start the war, according to our count.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army's deadly strikes on a displacement camp in Gaza's Rafah was a "tragic incident" which his government was "investigating," according to an AFP report.
"In Rafah, we evacuated a million uninvolved residents, and despite our best efforts, a tragic incident happened yesterday," Netanyahu told Parliament, adding that "we are investigating the case and will draw the conclusions" after Gaza officials reported 45 dead.
In Friday's ICJ ruling on additional measures in the case where Israel stands accused of genocide, the Court demanded that Israel immediately halt all operations in Rafah, saying it was "not convinced" that Israel's claims of protecting and evacuating citizens were sufficient.
More updates from southern Lebanon:
• Israeli aircraft bombed the outskirts of Bint Jbeil, according to a security source. Initial reports reaching our correspondent in the region indicate that two shells targeted a house in the Khallet Mashta area.
• Hezbollah announced a seventh attack, this time targeting Israeli settlements in the vicinity of Meron, more than 10 km from the border, with "dozens of Katyusha rockets," in retaliation for the Israeli bombardment of the Salah Ghandour hospital area this morning.
Updates from southern Lebanon:
• Al-Risala Scouts, the medical association affiliated with the Amal Movement, announced that members of its firefighting team were working to extinguish fires set off by the Israeli army's use of white phosphorus bombs in attacks on on Aitaroun and Wadi Slouki, in the Bint Jbeil district.
• Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of the village of Kfar Kila in the Marjayoun district, residents reported. Two shells also fell on the outskirts of Houla, in the same district, during a funeral.
• Hezbollah issued a sixth statement today announcing an attack on a building northeast of the Israeli town of Metula, located opposite Kfar Kila, in retaliation for the Israeli bombardment of Aitaroun earlier in the day.
The Egyptian army has announced it's opening an investigation into the death of a border guard, killed in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops at the Rafah border area between Egypt and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have invaded and taken control of the crossing, reports AFP.
"The Egyptian armed forces, via the competent authorities, are investigating shots fired at the Rafah border area which resulted in the death of one of the guards," according to a statement issued by the Egyptian army spokesperson. The Israeli army said it was investigating an "incident" involving "gunfire" at the Egyptian border.
Cats and dogs gathered around Rafiq Qassem, a civilian killed in an Israeli airstrike on the village of Aita al Shaab on May 27. (Credit: Mokhtar of Aita al-Shaab,Majd Thini)
People on social media are remembering Rafik Qassem as a "Martyr of humanity," as they mourn his death in an Israeli drone strike on the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab on Sunday, paying homage to the civilian who was known for caring for the village's stray cats and dogs.
Qassem, killed alongside another civilian, Hussein Saleh, took care of the village's various pets and animals — and continued to do so even after fighting broke out between Hezbollah and Israel last October.
"His family left the village but he decided to stay," Thini said, "Every morning, he used to distribute food to these pets who stayed with him all the time."
⚡ Hamas has pulled from all further negotiations toward a hostage exchange or truce deal with Israel following the Israeli army's deadly attack on a camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza last night, which has raised an outcry of condemnation from all over the world, Haaretz reports.
Citing sources in Hamas, Haaretz says the group's leadership has told mediating countries that it will not participate in the talks, which Israel declared would be renewed this week, although, so far no party involved has named a location or exact time for when the negotiation would take place.
The sources say Hamas asked the mediating countries for a clear plan that guarantees ending the war in Gaza, and said they don't intend to "play into Netanyahu's hands and hold discussions with no purpose."
An Egyptian soldier was killed, and several others wounded by Israeli gunfire near the Rafah border crossing, according to Israeli media reports. There were no casualties or injuries among Israeli soldiers according to Kan news channel.
Haaretz reports that the Israeli army has yet to determine which of the sides initiated the exchange of gunfire, but based on soldiers' testimonies, the assessment is that an Egyptian soldier fired first toward Israeli forces. An army spokesperson said "the incident is being investigated alongside a dialogue with the Egyptian side."
Middle East Eye reports that unnamed sources told Daily News Egypt that Egyptian soldiers were "affected" by the Rafah massacre yesterday, in which an Israeli bombing led to the killing of 45 Palestinians at a displacement camp.
In northern Israel, eight firefighting teams are attempting to extinguish a fire that broke out as the result of rockets launched from southern Lebanon toward the city of Kiryat Shmona, Haaretz reports.
The firefighting service's spokesperson said that the fire is still not under control and that firefighters are focusing on preventing the fire from reaching residential areas.
Hezbollah announced two new attacks on Israeli positions during the afternoon. The first, carried out by a sniper, targeted “surveillance equipment in Misgav Am at 12:25 p.m., which was destroyed.”
The second, in “retaliation for the strike on the Houla center and citizens,” was carried out using “suicide drones” against the Beit Hillel base and Iron Dome platforms.
The Israeli army carried out simulations and exercises of a ground attack in Lebanon over recent weeks, according to the Israeli military in a statement released on its Telegram channel.
Read the full story here.
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah toured the Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil, following the targeted Israeli strike that killed a motorcyclist near the facility.
During this visit, he condemned the fact that Israel attacked “the entrance to a humanitarian institution." “These attacks are intended to put pressure on our country, the people of the region and the resistance,” he said, adding that they would not affect Hezbollah's support for the Palestinian people “until the massacre in Gaza is stopped.”
Gaza's health ministry announced that the number of people killed in the Israeli strike on Rafah has increased to 45, 23 of whom were women, children or elderly.
Another 249 people were injured in the strike.
Gaza's health ministry announced that the death toll in the enclave since Oct. 7 has surpassed 36,000 following an Israeli strike on a tent encampment in Rafah filled with Palestinians seeking shelter from the Israeli incursion into Gaza's southernmost region.
According to the ministry, 66 people were killed in the last 24 hours and a total of 81,026 people have been injured since the war began.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged by the Israeli strikes that killed many displaced people in Rafah.” “These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians," he wrote on X, calling for "full respect for international law and an immediate cease-fire."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that his country will do “everything possible” to hold Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the “barbaric” authorities to account, in the wake of the strikes on Rafah.
“Just like Hitler, Milosevic (president of former Yugoslavia), Karadzic (Bosnian Serb leader) and other pharaohs of history they admire, they will not be able to avoid being cursed. As Turkey, we will do everything in our power to call to account these barbarians and murderers who have nothing to do with humanity," said the head of state.
France's former Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, has called for an “immediate and lasting cease-fire in Gaza” following the Israeli attack on Rafah.
Colonna chaired a group of independents tasked with assessing UNRWA's “neutrality” after employees of the UN agency were accused of involvement in the Oct. 7 attack.
The latest on the situation in southern Lebanon:
- Local residents, a security source and a medical source told L'Orient Today that the Israeli strike on a motorcycle in Bint Jbeil, near the Salah Ghandour hospital, left one person dead – so far unidentified and believed to be a civilian – and four seriously injured.
- Israeli airstrikes targeted Yaroun (Bint Jbeil) and the outskirts of Shebaa (Hasbaya), a security source reported.
- An Israeli fighter jet breaking the sound barrier shattered the windows of several homes in Hibbarieh (Hasbaya), according to local residents.
- The Civil Defense of the Islamic Mission Scouts (affiliated with the Amal movement) reported that it had taken part in putting out a fire after white phosphorus bombs were fired in Taybeh (Marjeyoun), and in transporting a wounded man after a strike on Aitaroun.
- The Israeli army, quoted by Haaretz, said it had retaliated to strikes on Malkia, claimed earlier by Haaretz, by hitting “launching platforms” used by the party, and claimed to have bombed “a Hezbollah military structure” in Aitaroun.
- Warning sirens sounded in several towns in northern Israel after air “infiltration,” according to Haaretz.
Leading Gulf state and Middle East heavyweight Saudi Arabia also condemned “in the strongest terms the continuing massacres” in Gaza, following the deadly overnight strike at Rafah.
The kingdom expressed “its categorical rejection of the flagrant and continuing violations by the Israeli occupation forces of all international resolutions, laws and rules,” said the Saudi Foreign Ministry, calling on the international community “to intervene immediately.”
Qatar called on “the international community to act urgently to prevent genocide and protect civilians.” Kuwait, another Gulf state, also denounced “flagrant war crimes” and called for “immediate and firm intervention by the international community.”
Italy said that Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza are “no longer justifiable,” in one of Rome's strongest criticisms of the Israeli offensive in Gaza to date.
“The situation is increasingly difficult, the Palestinian people are trapped without taking into account the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas, and this can no longer be justified,” Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told SkyTG24 television.
The Israeli army's general counsel, Major General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, commented on the Rafah strike at a conference. “The details of the incident are still under investigation,” she said, saying she takes “these allegations” that civilians were struck at Rafah “very seriously.”
“Yesterday, a so-called ‘security zone’ outside Rafah was bombed by Israel, killing dozens of women and children,” denounced Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on X. “We urgently need partners who are ready to sit around a table to discuss peace,” he continued, thanking Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Moustapha for meeting with him and Belgian foreign minister Hadja Lahbib.
Yesterday, a so-called ‘safe zone’ outside Rafah was bombed by Israel, killing tens of women and children.
— Alexander De Croo 🇧🇪🇪🇺 (@alexanderdecroo) May 27, 2024
We urgently need partners ready to sit around the table to discuss peace.
Thank you Prime Minister Mustafa Mohamed for explaining your plans to me and @hadjalahbib today. pic.twitter.com/nxqpwp4Gwe
Jordanian also condemned last night's bombardment of Rafah, calling it an “act of defiance against the rulings of the International Court of Justice” and a “severe violation" of international law.
“These actions are war crimes that the international community must confront, to ensure that those responsible are held accountable,” said Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sufian Qudah in a statement.
“Israel committed a massacre in Rafah this evening [Sunday], dropping several 2,000-pound bombs (over 900 kg) on civilian tents and UN buildings, killing dozens of civilians seeking shelter. This is Israel's response to the International Court of Justice's demand that it put an end to its offensive on Rafah," said Houssam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to London, on X.
Qatar said the latest Israeli attack on Rafah, which killed 40 people, could hamper mediation efforts to reach a cease-fire and hostage exchange agreement, according to a Foreign Ministry statement quoted by Reuters.
“Reports from Rafah of further attacks on families seeking shelter are horrific,” said UNRWA on X, adding that reports “show a large number of casualties, including children and women.” “Gaza is a living hell. Last night's images bear witness to this once again.”
The UN agency also reported that it had lost contact with “its colleagues in the field.” “No place is safe. No one is safe."
Information coming out of #Rafah about further attacks on families seeking shelter is horrifying.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 27, 2024
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.
“Everyone agrees that the decisions of the International Court of Justice are binding and must be implemented,” said Borrell, following the court's order for Israel to cease its offensive at Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip “immediately”. But, he acknowledged, “there is a real dilemma as to how the international community can compel the implementation” of these decisions.
Back to South Lebanon for a follow-up to the targeted Israeli strike in Bint Jbeil, near the Salah Ghandour hospital:
According to a security source, the strike killed one person and wounded ten others, most of whom were on their way to the hospital.
In addition, the center of the town of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil) was bombed, according to local residents. A house was targeted. Ambulances were dispatched to the scene.
“The massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in refugee tents in the northwest of the city of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, left 40 martyrs and 65 wounded,” Mohammed al-Mughayyir, a civil defense official in the Gaza Strip, told AFP.
In Cairo, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on Israel to “implement the measures decreed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning an immediate cessation of military operations” in the Palestinian town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
Ahead of a meeting in Brussels of European foreign ministers and their Saudi, Qatari, Jordanian, Egyptian and Emirati counterparts, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, declared that the decisions of the International Court of Justice are “binding and must be respected.” “International humanitarian law applies to everyone, including Israel's conduct of the war,” added the German minister, quoted by Reuters.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ordered the Spanish Consulate in Jerusalem to cease providing services to Palestinians from June 1, in response to Madrid's recognition of the State of Palestine, according to an Israeli diplomatic press release.
As of that date, the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem will be “authorized to provide consular services to residents of the Jerusalem consular district only, and [will] not be authorized to ... exercise consular activity with regard to residents of the Palestinian Authority,” the statement said.
In response to Israeli “aggression” in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah launched a “targeted attack” on Malkia, opposite Aitaroun. For this attack, the party claims to have used “guided missiles, artillery fire and suicide drones,” which targeted equipment installed on this site and soldiers.
The site of the strike in Bint Jbeil. (Photo obtained from a person on the scene by L'Orient Today's correspondent Muntasser Abdallah)
And at around 10 a.m., an Israeli drone strike targeted a motorcycle near the Salah Ghandour Hospital in the town of Bint Jbeil, according to a security source. Three people were injured.
Fighting along the border has continued into the morning:
- At 8:30 a.m., Hezbollah announced that it had struck Margaliot, a town in northern Israel opposite Houla (Marjayoun). According to Haaretz, an “anti-tank missile hit a building, causing no injuries.”
- Israeli artillery fire hit an area between Taybeh and Rab al-Talatine (Marjayoun).
After 11 p.m., Hezbollah announced two new strikes. The first was launched with a guided missile against a Merkava tank located near the Israeli post of “Zibdine," opposite Halta, in the Hasbaya caza. The vehicle was “destroyed and caught fire” and the strike caused casualties, according to the party. The second strike was launched at 11:30 p.m. against an Israeli patrol near Malkia, opposite the Lebanese town of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil).
Between 8 and 10 p.m., a number of bombardments and artillery strikes also hit southern Lebanon.
- Mortar shells hit Zibqine (Sour) as well as Berghoz (Hasbaya), causing a fire.
- White phosphorus bombs targeted several areas in the Hasbaya district, including Wadi Khansa and Halta, Rihanieh, and Majidieh. Artillery fire also hit the outskirts of Kfar Shouba, where a fire broke out.
- Three airstrikes targeted a building on the main road to Mais al-Jabal. When civil defense rescue workers from the Islamic Mission Scouts (affiliated to the Amal movement) went to the scene to clear the road, another strike targeted the area. However, the missile did not explode.
- Israeli fighter jets twice bombed Wadi al-Assafir, in Khiam (Marjayoun).
An update on the situation along the Lebanese-Israeli border last night:
Hezbollah announced two deaths in its ranks: Tarek Awd, born in 2003, and Hussein Moustafa, born in 2004. According to L'Orient Today's correspondent, these are the two people killed in a strike in Houla (Marjayoun), as previously reported. According to Hezbollah press releases, the two victims were originally from this village.
According to L'Orient Today's count, 321 members of the party have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8.
Late in the evening, Hezbollah announced several strikes in retaliation for the Israeli bombardments that punctuated Sunday. Hezbollah fighters targeted “Yiftah barracks” with dozens of Katyusha rockets, “Ramim barracks” with “missiles and artillery shells,” “Khirbet Maer base,” a defense platform and soldiers around it, with “dozens of Katyusha rockets” as well, and “new surveillance equipment installed at the Rahib site.”
In addition, tomorrow Spain, Ireland and Norway will officially recognize the State of Palestine. In this context, European Union foreign ministers will meet today in Brussels with their counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, as well as with the Secretary General of the Arab League.
According to a senior Israeli official, a meeting of the war cabinet was held overnight to discuss efforts to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the war.
Amnesty International asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open a “war crimes” investigation into three airstrikes on the Gaza Strip that killed 44 people, including 32 children, in April, according to the NGO. Amnesty's Erika Guevara-Rosas said her organization's investigation had provided “essential evidence pointing to unlawful attacks by the Israeli army.”
In Tel Aviv and central Israel, warning sirens sounded yesterday afternoon for the first time in months. The Israeli army reported eight rockets fired from Rafah and said it had shelled the town in retaliation.
Strikes in other areas of Rafah were also reported late yesterday. The Kuwaiti Hospital said it had received the bodies of three people, including a pregnant woman.
Since May 7, the Israeli army has been stepping up operations to destroy what it claims are the last Hamas battalions in Rafah. Fighting continued over the weekend, despite a decision on Friday by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to suspend its operations in this area, which is essential for the entry of humanitarian aid.
The Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, who is mandated by the Human Rights Council but does not speak on behalf of the organization, spoke of “even more horrors in the Gaza ghetto.” “This cruelty and flagrant disregard for international law are unacceptable,” she wrote on X.
More horror in the #GazaGhetto. The Israeli occupation forces have bombed a camp for displaced Palestinians in #Rafah, causing plastic tents to catch fire and tragically burning people alive. This cruelty, along with blatant defiance of the int'l law and system, is unacceptable.… https://t.co/phkK4EBwsy
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 27, 2024
On its X account, the international NGO Doctors Without Borders expressed its “horror” to the strike, “which shows once again that there is no safe place” in Gaza. The association added that “dozens of wounded and more than 15 dead have been brought” to a medical center it runs in the area.
Following an Israeli air strike that hit a camp for displaced people tonight in Tal Al Sultan, Rafah, Gaza, dozens of wounded and more than 15 dead people were brought to the trauma stabilization point that we support.
— MSF International (@MSF) May 26, 2024
The Israeli army claimed that one of its aircraft had “struck a Hamas compound in Rafah in which important terrorists were operating,” including two of the movement's West Bank leaders, Yassin Rabia and Khaled Najjar. “The strike was carried out against targets legitimate under international law, through the use of precise munitions and on the basis of accurate intelligence,” it said in a statement. It also stated that it was “aware of reports that several civilians in the area have been injured.”
During the night, Israel bombed a center for displaced persons near Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, killing at least 35 people. “This atrocious massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces is a defiance of all international resolutions,” wrote the Palestinian presidency in a statement. It accused Israel of “deliberately targeting” the Barkasat camp for displaced persons, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) northwest of Rafah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulances had transported “a large number” of people killed or injured in the attack.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa, quoting the Palestinian Red Crescent, reports that people in the targeted tents were “burned alive,” mainly women and children. According to the relief organization, hospitals in the area “are unable to accommodate the large number of victims, given the deliberate destruction of the health system in Gaza” by Israel.
Be sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
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