UAE condemns Israeli strike on refugee tents in Rafah, calls for Gaza cease-fire

By Ibrahim al-Khazen

ISTANBUL (AA) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday strongly denounced an Israeli strike on refugee tents in Rafah and called for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

At least 45 people, mostly women and children, were killed and nearly 250 others injured in an Israeli strike on a camp for displaced people in Rafah on Sunday.

In a statement, the Emirati Foreign Ministry condemned in the strongest terms "the ongoing Israeli violations in the Gaza Strip and the most recent targeting of refugee tents, which has resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries to innocent civilians."

The ministry underscored the importance of reaching “an immediate cease-fire, providing protection for civilians, and preventing further loss of life."

It called on the international community “to intensify efforts to halt escalation in all the regions of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to alleviate the extremely critical and deepening humanitarian catastrophe faced by civilians in Gaza due to continuous Israeli aggression."

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 attack has triggered a wave of condemnations from around the world amid accusations for Israel of defying calls to halt its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Israel has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians in the besieged enclave 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 Ahmed Asmar