Israel attacks Rafah refugee camp, 37 killed

(Patria) - At least 37 people were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli strikes on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, local health officials said on Monday, after US President Joe Biden told Israel not to attack Rafah without a credible plan to protect civilians, Reuters reported.

The heavy bombardment sparked widespread panic in Rafah as many people were sleeping when the strikes began, residents contacted by Reuters said. Some feared Israel had begun its ground offensive on Rafah. The attacks involved Israeli aircraft, tanks and ships, and hit two mosques and several houses, residents said.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had carried out a "series of strikes" on southern Gaza that were now "completed," without providing further details. Before previous attacks on Gaza cities, the Israeli military ordered civilians to leave without preparing any specific evacuation plan.

Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not launch a military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to ensure the safety of the roughly one million people sheltering there, the White House said.

Humanitarian agencies say an attack on Rafah would be catastrophic. It is the last relatively safe place in the enclave devastated by the Israeli military offensive.

Biden and Netanyahu spoke for about 45 minutes, days after the US leader said Israel's military response in the Gaza Strip was "over the top" and expressed serious concern over the rising civilian death toll in the Palestinian enclave.

Netanyahu's office said he had ordered the military to develop a plan to evacuate Rafah and destroy four Hamas battalions it says are deployed there.

Hamas killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted at least 250 in its incursion on October 7, according to Israeli figures. Israel responded with a military assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Sunday that there were "enough" of the 132 remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza alive to justify Israel's war in the region.
The Israeli military said two hostages were freed overnight in a joint operation by the Israeli military, the domestic security service Shin Bet and a special police unit in Rafah.

Hamas-run Aqsa television on Sunday quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would "blow up" hostage exchange negotiations.
Egypt warned on Sunday of "dire consequences" of a potential Israeli military attack on Rafah, which lies near its border. "Egypt called for the necessity of uniting all international and regional efforts to prevent targeting the Palestinian city of Rafah," a statement from its foreign ministry said.