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
Mexican government prioritizes 191 communities after deadly floods
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed on Wednesday that the death toll from recent rains and floods across several central states has risen to 66, while the federal government has activated air bridges and prioritized assistance in 191 isolated communities.
“Unfortunately, 66 people have died, and 75 remain missing,” the president said during her morning press conference. She added that the official death toll will be updated later in a new report.
As of Tuesday, authorities had reported 64 fatalities. Sheinbaum also announced the creation of a public information center to centralize official data on the deceased, missing persons, damaged homes, and cut-off communities.
According to the president, the number of missing persons has decreased thanks to coordination with state authorities.
“Through calls to phone line 079, 103 people who had been reported missing have now been located,” she explained.
Priority Municipalities
The president noted that the federal government has classified 191 communities as ‘priority’, a designation based mainly on the percentage of homes affected.
International
New road and bridge explosions raise alarm amid indigenous protests in Ecuador
Ecuadorian authorities are investigating two explosions that occurred early Wednesday, one on a road in the southern part of the country and another under a bridge in Guayas province. These incidents follow the car bomb explosion in the coastal city of Guayaquil, also in Guayas, which occurred the day before and left one person dead and 30 injured.
Press reports indicate that one person was injured and several vehicles were damaged in the explosion on the Cuenca-Girón-Pasaje road in the south.
“Besides yesterday’s explosion in Guayaquil, we have received reports of explosives placed on bridges along the Guayaquil-Machala and Machala-Cuenca routes to disrupt traffic,” said Roberto Luque, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT).
On his X social media account, Luque reported that authorities have been deployed to the sites to assess the damage and determine the current condition of the structures.
“What they haven’t achieved with their call for a strike, some are trying to achieve through terrorism,” he stated, referring to the 24 days of protests organized by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie) against rising diesel prices and other demands.
The protests, called at a national level, have Imbabura province as their epicenter. Roadblocks have also been reported in the northern part of Pichincha province, whose capital is Quito, while activities in the rest of the country continue normally.
International
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
Ecuador’s Armed Forces carried out an operation on Monday — including airstrikes — against illegal mining in the town of Buenos Aires, in the country’s north, Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo reported.
The mountainous, gold-rich area has been a hotspot for illegal mining since 2017, located in the Andean province of Imbabura.
In 2019, former president Lenín Moreno deployed around 2,400 soldiers to the region in an attempt to curb the illegal activity. “The operation began with mortar fire, followed by gunfire and bombing runs by Supertucano aircraft,” Loffredo said in a video released by the Defense Ministry.
He added that the operation would continue on Tuesday with patrols across the area to locate possible members of “irregular armed groups that may have crossed from the Colombian border.”
The Armed Forces stated on X that the intervention focused on the “complete elimination of multiple illegal mining tunnels” in the areas known as Mina Nueva and Mina Vieja.
The operation coincided with the deployment of a military and police convoy into Imbabura, which has been the epicenter of protests against President Daniel Noboa since September 22, following his decision to scrap the diesel subsidy.
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New road and bridge explosions raise alarm amid indigenous protests in Ecuador
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
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