Hamas has called on the UN Security Council to take “immediate” action to stop Israel’s ongoing offensive in Rafah, located in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Palestinian Resistance movement urged the council to “fulfill its legal and moral responsibilities in response to Israel’s disregard for the International Court of Justice’s ruling.”
The Hague-based court had ordered Israel to cease its operation in Rafah last week. Before the city was invaded on May 6, over a million Palestinians had sought refuge there.
Hamas warned that the Israeli offensive in Rafah “risks causing massacres in the densely populated city, filled with displaced people.”
On Tuesday, Israeli tanks reached the center of Rafah as part of the ground offensive.
The ongoing Israeli expansion in Rafah brings the Israeli army close to full control of the Philadelphi Route, a demilitarized buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border.
So far, the Israeli army has taken control of nearly two-thirds of the corridor amid heavy bombardment and shelling.
Genocide Continues – Civilian Toll Rises as Israeli Forces Intensify Bombardment in Rafah, Gaza
At Algeria’s Request
Meanwhile, at Algeria’s request, the UNSC will convene an urgent closed-door session on Tuesday to address the situation in Rafah.
According to Algeria’s state-run news agency, the request was made in response to the “dangerous developments” in the occupied Palestinian territories following Israel’s attack on a displaced persons camp in Rafah on Sunday, which killed at least 45 Palestinians and injured many more.
This attack occurred despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to cease its offensive in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the Israel-Hamas conflict before the invasion on May 6.
The UNSC session on Rafah is scheduled to commence at 3:30 pm local time in New York (7:30 GMT).
🚨 Ceasefire Urgently Needed Amid #Israel’s Genocidal Massacre in #Rafah, Defying @CIJ_ICJ PM Orders.
Sunday’s harrowing scenes inc. a decapitated child & charred bodies of displaced #Palestinians.
Open Letter W/ @AlMezanCenter & @pchrgaza to the UNSC: https://t.co/SvrWbm25jE— Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) May 28, 2024
Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 36,096 Palestinians have been killed, and 81,136 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, Anadolu, AJA)
