International
At least 45 dead in an Israeli attack on a camp for displaced people in Rafah
At least 45 people have been killed in a bombing of a refugee camp in Rafah (south of Gaza) last night, according to the Ministry of Health of the enclave, controlled by Hamas.
The attack confirmed by the Israeli Army was perpetrated in a “safe zone” of Rafah, three days after the International Court of Justice ordered the end of the Israeli Army’s military offensive in that city in the extreme south of the Gaza Strip in the face of the risk of genocide.
Of the 45 deaths counted in the massacre, twenty-three are women, children or the elderly.
“Another atrocious massacre was committed by Israeli forces in Rafah, which has so far claimed the lives of fifty martyrs and dozens of wounded, most of them children and women,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Health of Gaza, controlled by Hamas.
For its part, the Israeli Army confirmed the attack of its aviation in the Tal al Sultan area, “based on precise intelligence” and directed against two senior officials of the Islamist Hamas group. Specifically, the commander of his division for the West Bank, Yassin Rabia; and another high command of that same division, Khaled Nagar.
“The Hamas wing in Judea and Samaria (occupied West Bank) is responsible for the planning, financing and execution of terrorist attacks throughout Judea and Samaria and within Israel,” said a military statement about that attack in Tal al Sultan, a Rafah neighborhood that Israeli forces had not yet ordered to be evacuated and that welcomed hundreds of displaced people.
An hour later, the chief prosecutor of the Israeli Army, Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, acknowledged that the bombing of the evacuee camp in Rafah was “very serious.”
In an intervention before Israel’s lawyers, Yerushalmi announced that the armed forces are carrying out an investigation.
“Naturally, in a war of such scope and intensity, complex incidents also occur,” he said. “Some of the incidents, such as last night in Rafah, are very serious.”
Images disseminated on Palestinian social networks show a large fire caused by the aerial bombardment of the provisional tents in Tal al Sultan.
“Never before in history have such a large number of mass killing tools been used in front of the world as is happening now in Gaza, where the population is deprived of water, food, medicines, electricity and fuel, crushing the infrastructure and destroying all institutions,” denounced the Ministry of Health of Gaza.
According to their data, the deaths in Gaza reached 36,050 on Monday, after 66 people died from Israeli fire in the last 24 hours, 45 of them in the bombing in Rafah.
This attack was recorded hours after Hamas launched from that point in the Strip, according to the Army, eight rockets into central Israel, including Tel Aviv, for the first time in about four months, which did not cause serious damage or injuries.
The spokesman for the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Nabil Abu Rudeina, condemned this “deliberate attack by the occupying army” on tents of displaced people in Rafah, causing a “massacre that has exceeded all limits and requires urgent intervention to immediately stop these crimes against the Palestinian people.”
In the West Bank, hundreds of Palestinians have taken to the streets in various cities, including in hot spots such as Yenin or Tulkarem, in protest against this attack.
Numerous countries and international organizations have condemned the attack against a “safe zone” of Rafah that the Israeli Army had not yet ordered to evacuate.
Iran has described it as a war crime, while Egypt and Qatar, key mediators for a truce in Gaza, have expressed their concern about the possibility that it “complicates efforts” for a humanitarian pause.
For their part, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have denounced that it has been “a bloody night” and “terrifying.”
In Brussels, representatives of humanitarian organizations placed a red ribbon on Monday in front of the community institutions in Brussels, where the Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union is held today, to represent the “red lines” crossed by Israel in its offensive in Gaza and to ask for sanctions from European leaders.
Before that meeting, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrell, revealed to the press that today he will propose to the Twenty-seven to relaunch the community border assistance mission in Rafah.
The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, has warned Israel that it will not achieve its safety “if people are burned in tents.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the death of civilians last night in an Israeli attack on a camp for displaced persons in Rafah, in the extreme south of the Gaza Strip, is a “tragic mishap.”
“We are investigating the case, that is our policy. For us, every damage to uninvolved civilians is a tragedy,” Netanyahu said at an audience in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) with families of hostages about the war in the Strip, which adds up to more than 36,000 deaths, more than 70% civilians.
The Egyptian Army confirmed on Monday that a person died during an exchange of fire with Israeli forces at the Rafah border crossing, which connects the Egyptian Sinai with the Gaza Strip, an unusual incident that the authorities of both countries say they are investigating.
“The Egyptian Armed Forces are investigating, through the competent authorities, the incident with shooting at the border line in Rafah, which caused the martyrdom of a member in charge of security,” the Egyptian Army said in a brief statement without providing further details.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) previously reported in another brief statement about a “shooting on the border with Egypt” that is being “the subject of an investigation,” while indicating that the Israeli authorities are “maintaining a dialogue with the Egyptian side.”
Eyewitnesses at the Rafah crossing at the time of the incident informed EFE that the Israeli shots reached the Egyptian side of the land crossing, taken by Israeli forces weeks ago in the midst of operations against the Palestinian town of the same name, where a large part of the displaced by the war are overcrowded.
Two Egyptian military and security sources also confirmed to EFE that after the “exchange of fire between Egyptian and Israeli soldiers,” whose details did not transcend, the security forces cordoned off the vicinity of the crossing.
“Egyptian soldiers fired at members of the Israeli army, without causing casualties. But the forces of the occupying army (Israel) responded by firing as a warning,” added the military source, who asked not to be identified.
In his account, the Egyptian security source indicated that the Israeli troops “fled after the shooting” and that the exchange “has not continued.”
“All Israeli forces withdrew from the confrontation zone at the Rafah border crossing in the Palestinian part,” they added.
The source added that this exchange of fire “is due to the tension between Tel Aviv and Cairo” for this morning’s attack on a camp for displaced people in Rafah, where about fifty people died in a fire that broke out after the bombing, according to Israel’s first investigations.
At least 135 trucks loaded only with food entered from Egypt into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, after a first convoy of 125 vehicles entered yesterday, which did include fuel and medical supplies, Egyptian Red Crescent sources reported.
This is the second shipment with hundreds of tons of food that enters for the second consecutive day from Egyptian territory to the corridor that leads to Kerem Shalom, where they are inspected by Israel before accessing the Palestinian enclave.
Yesterday, Egypt sent for the first time 125 trucks loaded with food and medical supplies, as well as fuel, to Gaza through this point since Israel took the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing twenty days ago, in the south of the enclave and bordering the Sinai peninsula.
International
Mexico and U.S. Launch New Bilateral Security Group to Combat Fentanyl and Organized Crime
The governments of Mexico and the United States officially launched the Bilateral Implementation Group (BIG) on Friday, a new initiative aimed at strengthening cooperation on security issues and enhancing joint efforts against transnational crime.
In a statement, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson announced that he and Deputy Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco addressed officials from both countries who will lead what he described as a “new phase of bilateral cooperation.” The initiative seeks to curb the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, illegal firearms, and human trafficking across the shared border.
Earlier this week, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had confirmed that senior security officials from both nations would meet in Mexico City on June 12 to review and advance existing cooperation agreements.
Through social media, Ambassador Johnson explained that the new bilateral group is designed to improve coordination between the two governments by placing greater emphasis on implementation, accountability, and measurable results. The effort will also focus on combating transnational criminal organizations operating across North America.
“The participation of 15 U.S. government agencies, working alongside their Mexican counterparts, reflects the seriousness of this effort and our shared commitment to delivering measurable results,” Johnson said.
The ambassador also highlighted several achievements that he attributed to ongoing bilateral cooperation. According to Johnson, maritime drug trafficking into the United States has declined by more than 95 percent, while overdose deaths have fallen by 35 percent.
He further noted that Mexican authorities have seized more than 400 metric tons of illegal drugs and dismantled over 2,300 clandestine laboratories as part of their efforts to combat organized crime and narcotics production.
The launch of the Bilateral Implementation Group marks the latest step in the security partnership between Mexico and the United States, as both countries seek to address shared challenges related to drug trafficking, arms smuggling, human trafficking, and the activities of criminal networks operating across the region.
International
‘El Chapo’ Guzmán again asks Mexican president to seek his return from U.S. prison
Convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has once again appealed to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to intervene on his behalf and seek his transfer from the United States to Mexico, where he hopes to serve the remainder of his prison sentence.
Guzmán, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, is currently serving a sentence of more than 50 years in the United States after being convicted in 2019 on multiple charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
According to reports, the latest request was made in a letter dated June 2, one of several messages that Guzmán has reportedly sent to Sheinbaum in recent months in an effort to secure his repatriation. In the letter, he expresses hope that the Mexican government can support the efforts of his legal team.
Written in English and by hand, the letter asks that he be allowed to complete his sentence in Mexico, arguing that such a transfer would enable him to receive visits from family members more easily.
Guzmán is currently being held at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, commonly known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” one of the most secure prisons in the United States.
As in previous communications, the former cartel leader complained about his prison conditions, stating that he remains in near-total isolation and has little to no contact with other inmates.
He also reiterated his long-standing claim that he did not receive a fair trial in the United States and argued that the Mexican government bears responsibility for much of the violence associated with organized crime in the country.
In the letter, Guzmán maintains that his actions were motivated by a desire to protect himself and his family amid the violence linked to criminal organizations in Mexico.
Mexican authorities have not publicly indicated whether they plan to respond to the request. Guzmán remains one of the most notorious figures in the history of international drug trafficking and is serving his sentence under some of the strictest security measures in the U.S. prison system.
Central America
U.S. Authorities Accuse Guatemalan Nationals of Using False Information to Sponsor Migrant Minors
Senior officials from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday criminal charges against three Guatemalan citizens accused of using false information to sponsor migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent or guardian.
According to an indictment filed in Ohio, Maritza Cahuec Coc allegedly submitted at least 12 sponsorship applications, several of which were filed under aliases or contained materially false statements intended to secure custody of the minors.
Under U.S. procedures, unaccompanied migrant children apprehended at the southern border are placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for their care until they can be released to a qualified sponsor, such as a parent or relative living in the United States.
Prosecutors allege that Cahuec Coc, who reportedly entered the United States illegally in 2018, received payments between late 2020 and 2023 for helping bring 12 migrant minors into the country. Authorities claim she submitted fraudulent documents and misleading information to obtain approval for the sponsorship requests.
The case was announced during a joint press conference led by Acting Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. However, officials provided limited details about the investigation and instead focused much of their remarks on criticizing immigration policies implemented under the previous administration.
Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials have frequently pointed to the increase in unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border during President Joe Biden’s term, arguing that the government failed to adequately oversee their care and placement.
During Thursday’s briefing, A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, alleged that Cahuec Coc used the identities of other individuals and falsely claimed family relationships in order to obtain custody of the children.
“Maritza submitted sponsorship applications using other people’s identities and falsely represented that the minors were the children of close relatives in order to secure their release,” Duva said.
The case remains under investigation, and federal authorities have not yet disclosed additional information regarding the other two Guatemalan nationals charged in connection with the alleged scheme.
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