Israeli journalist close to Netanyahu gloats over Palestinian deaths in Rafah

By Anadolu staff

JERUSALEM (AA) – An Israeli journalist close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gloated over the death of dozens of Palestinians in an Israeli attack in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

At least 35 people, mostly women and children, were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike on a camp for displaced people in Rafah on Sunday.

Yinon Magal posted a video on his X account that captured Palestinian medical teams as they desperately attempted to rescue civilians from fires that had engulfed their tents after the strike.

“The main lighting ceremony this year (is) in Rafah,” he commented on the video, referring to the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer, which involves bonfires.

Later, Magal deleted his post but kept it on his Telegram account, which has over 73,000 followers.

Magal is known for his strong support of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and his unwavering backing of Netanyahu's policies.

Sunday’s attack occurred near the logistics base of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan, according to Gaza’s government media office.

The Israeli army had previously identified the camp it bombed in Rafah as being “within the safe zones where displaced people were urged to head.”

The army claimed that the attack targeted a Hamas compound in Rafah, admitting that there were “civilian casualties” in the attack.

“The details of the incident are still under investigation,” Israel’s top military prosecutor Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi said at a conference hosted by Israel’s Bar Association, according to Haaretz newspaper.

“We take these allegations very seriously, and are working to clarify them,’’ she added.

Israel has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which killed around 1,200 people.

The military campaign has turned much of the enclave of 2.3 million people into ruins, leaving most civilians homeless and at risk of famine.

The attack comes despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul