Israel sought to block a United Nations Security Council resolution against its military operation to eliminate Hamas in Rafah, as the international community continued to express its outrage over a Sunday night IDF strike in which 45 Palestinians were killed.
“The word tragic doesn’t even begin to describe it,” US Vice President Kamala Harris said.
US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby called the images of Rafah “heartbreaking” and “horrific.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the strike and was “heartbroken by the images of the killed and injured, including many small children,” his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.
“As he has said before, the horror and suffering must stop immediately.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized for what he called a “tragic accident.”
The IDF said that the “targeted strike in Rafah, 1.7 km. from the humanitarian area, used precise munitions carrying 34 kg. of explosives to eliminate 2 senior Hamas terrorists.”
The army is exploring the possibility that shrapnel from the strike set off a “secondary explosion from a Hamas munitions warehouse near the civilian compound and over 100 m. away from the strike site – causing the fire that tragically took civilian lives.”
Kirby said that the US has opposed a major Rafah strike and that every loss of life was tragic, but that he was glad the IDF is investigating the incident.
It speaks to the “challenge of military airstrikes in densely populated areas of Gaza including Rafah,” Kirby said.
Strengthening Algeria’s push for a resolution
The UNSC held a late afternoon closed-door meeting in New York about the strike and the Rafah operation in general, which the international community had already opposed, fearing civilian deaths such as those that occurred on Sunday night.
The Foreign Ministry sent a message to those envoys posed in the capitals of the 15-member body to urge those governments to oppose the Algerian and French push for a UN Security Council resolution that would call for an end to the Gaza war in general and the Rafah operation in specific.
The International Court of Justice ruling Friday that Israel has argued is vague, could strengthen Algeria’s push for a resolution, a source told The Jerusalem Post.
The ICJ ruling has been interpreted by opponents of the IDF’s military operation in Gaza as a call for Israel to cease its Rafah operation. Israel has held that it allows for its operation to continue.
The European Union’s foreign ministers that met in Brussels on Monday agreed to reexamine its association agreement with Israel in light of humanitarian issues relating to Gaza. The agreement is a document that dictates the terms of the EU-Israel relationship.
The EU plans to hold a meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council but has not set a date for that meeting.
In an address to his parliament Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris on Tuesday called on the EU to use the association agreement as a pressure lever to help end the Gaza war.
“There is an onus on every country and the European Union to use every lever at our disposal to bring about a ceasefire,” Harris said.
“It is no longer enough just to condemn, it’s no longer enough just to be repulsed,” he stressed.
“That’s why I welcome the decision… to convene a meeting on the EU-Israel Association agreement.
“The Human Rights clauses in that agreement are and must be meaningful, and when they’re not being adhered to, that too must have consequences. We need to look at all the levers at our disposal to bring about a cessation of violence before Netanyahu’s next tragic mistake,” Harris said.
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