JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s military on Monday categorically denied claims that the strikes that took out two senior Hamas terrorist leaders on Sunday were aimed at harming civilians, the same day Hamas launched a barrage of missiles at populated areas of Israel.
Reports vary on the number of civilians killed in the Rafah attack: the Hamas-run Health Ministry claims that at least 45 were killed, while other media outlets put the figure at up to 50.
“Unfortunately, a tragic incident occurred in Rafah, despite the fact that we have already evacuated around one million non-combatant residents and that we made every effort not to harm non-combatants. We are investigating the incident and will reach a conclusion, because this is our policy,” Netanyahu said in a speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday, according to Reuters.
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Fires rage after an Israeli military strike killed a Hamas terrorist, sparking a fire that killed civilians nearby. This still image was taken from a video on May 26, 2024. (Image from Reuters/Reuters TV TPX Today)
A spokesperson for the Biden administration’s National Security Council released a statement on Monday saying, “The devastating images following last night’s IDF attack in Rafah, leaving dozens of innocent Palestinians dead, are heartbreaking.”
The statement continued, “Israel has the right to pursue Hamas, and we understand that this attack resulted in the deaths of two senior Hamas terrorists involved in attacks on Israeli civilians. However, as we have always made clear, Israel must take every precaution to protect civilians. We are actively working with the IDF and partners on the ground to assess what happened, and we understand that the IDF is conducting an investigation.”
Speaking to the Israeli Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Rafah fire, which reportedly killed 45 Palestinians, was a “tragic mistake.” (Knesset Channel/Reuters)
Hamas does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists, and Fox News Digital reported in March that an Ivy League statistician argued that Hamas’ death toll was unreliable.
“Prior to the attack, several measures were taken to reduce the risk of harm to innocent civilians during the attack, including aerial surveillance, the deployment of precision weapons by the Israeli Air Force, and additional intelligence gathering. Based on these measures, it was determined that no harm to innocent civilians was expected,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said, adding: “Furthermore, the attack did not take place in the humanitarian area of al-Mawasi, where the IDF is urging civilians to evacuate.”
Israeli airstrikes in Rafah kill two top Hamas commanders and dozens of civilians
The IDF said its forces were continuing operations against terrorist targets in the Rafah area. (Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Office)
The IDF statement continued: “The incident is under investigation by the General Staff’s Fact-Finding and Assessment Facility, an independent body that investigates exceptional incidents during hostilities. The General Staff’s Fact-Finding and Assessment Facility is investigating the deaths of civilians in the area of the attack. The IDF regrets that innocent civilians were harmed during hostilities.”
According to an IDF statement, the Judge Advocate General of the Army, Maj. Gen. Ifat Tomer Yerushalmi, has instructed the General Staff’s Fact-Finding and Evaluation Mechanism to investigate the attack in Rafah.
Hamas said in a statement that the terror group was plotting an attack on Israel’s Mediterranean capital, adding that it had “launched a massive volley of shots at Tel Aviv in retaliation for the Zionist massacre of civilians.”
Hamas, a terrorist organization designated by the EU and the US, has fired rockets at Israeli civilians for more than a decade, sparking a small-scale war with the Jewish state.
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On May 9, Palestinian refugees fleeing Rafah arrived in central Gaza. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
According to the IDF, “Yesterday, Israeli Air Force aircraft conducted intelligence-based strikes in the Rafah area against high-value terror targets, including a senior terrorist from Hamas’ Judea-Samaria Air Wing, who has directed terror attacks in Judea and Samaria and carried out lethal attacks against Israeli civilians.”
The IDF added that “the attack was carried out based on prior intelligence indicating the presence of senior Hamas terrorists at the scene of the attack.”
The two Hamas leaders killed were Yassin Rabiya, a commander in Hamas’ leadership in Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the West Bank), and Khaled Nagar, a senior Hamas official who oversaw the Judea and Samaria region.
The IDF statement, taking into account alleged Hamas propaganda, also said: “The claim that seven one-ton munitions were used in the attack is false. The attack was carried out with two munitions with miniaturized warheads specifically designed to attack this type of target.”
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wenesland condemned the airstrike in a statement on Monday: “I condemn last night’s Israeli airstrike which struck displaced tents in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, tragically killing more than 35 Palestinians, including women and children, and reportedly wounding dozens more.”
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He added: “While the IDF announced that it struck a Hamas compound, killing two senior Hamas fighters in the attack, we are deeply troubled by the deaths of so many women and children in areas where people have fled.”
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner said: Exposing Hamas’ Sources He appeared in media reports exaggerating casualty figures and claiming attacks took place in humanitarian areas.
Lerner writes, “The man quoted is Mohammed Abu Hani, a senior Hamas official. He appears to be the source of the widely reported claim that the Israeli Air Force targeted humanitarian areas. Is he also the source of the same ‘Civil Defense’ report that 50 people were killed in the attack? A figure published by many media outlets around the world. Fact: no attacks have ever taken place in designated humanitarian areas.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
