War between Israel and Palestine in Rafah intensifies

A war between Israel and Hamas is intensifying surrounding Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip of Palestine. In particular, the Palestinian side raged at Israel’s attack on the Tal al-Sultan refugee camp in western Rafah on Sunday, arguing that Israel broke a promise not to attack humanitarian areas. Palestine also called for the Muslims to revolt against Israel. “Hamas launched rocket attacks first on the same day, and we needed to sweep the Hamas leadership,” said Israel.

According to BBC, Hamas launched at least eight rockets from Rafah to major cities in the central-northern region, including the largest city of Israel, Tel Aviv, as well as other cities such as Herzliya, Kfar Shmaryahu, Ramat HaSharon, Petah Tikva. It has been about six months since Hamas launched rockets toward Tel Aviv in December last year. Missile alerts went off throughout the region and an air defense network called ‘Iron Dome’ was launched. Israel later announced that some rockets were intercepted and only one person was injured with no death.

A few hours later, Israel launched a retaliatory attack toward Rafah, killing at least 35 Palestinians, including women and children in the Tal al-Sultan refugee camp.

“We struck the Hamas facilities in Rafah where terrorists of Hamas were active,” said the Israeli army, arguing that the attacks were justifiable military actions. It also announced that it killed the leaders of Hamas in charge of fund management, Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar. “We were reported that several civilians were hurt from fire caused by the attacks,” said the military. “We are investigating this matter.”

However, as Hamas announced its intent to retaliate, the battle between the two sides seems to be getting intensified. “We are enraged at the massacre committed to refugee tents by criminal occupation forces,’ said Hamas, calling for Palestinians residing in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as those living abroad, to rise up and march against Israel. The ceasefire negotiation scheduled to take place in Cairo, Egypt on Monday is likely to be affected by the recent attacks. Hamas announced that it wouldn’t release civilian Israeli hostages under detention unless Israel stops attacks on the Gaza Strip.


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