JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli attack on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah has left 22 people dead and dozens injured, local health officials said on Monday. President Joe Biden He ordered Israel not to attack Rafah without a credible plan to protect civilians.
The heavy bombing caused widespread panic in Rafah, with many people asleep when the bombing began, according to residents contacted by Reuters via a chat app. Some feared that Israel had launched a ground attack on Rafah.
The Israeli military announced on Monday that it had carried out a “series of attacks” in southern Gaza that had now “ended,” without providing further details.
Before previous attacks on Gaza City, Israeli forces ordered civilians to leave without making concrete evacuation plans.
Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not launch a military operation without a credible plan to ensure the safety of the roughly 1 million people sheltered in Rafah, the White House said. Told.
Aid agencies say an attack on Rafah would be devastating. It is the last place of relative safety in an enclave devastated by Israeli military attacks.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke for about 45 minutes, days after Biden said Israel's military response in the Gaza Strip was “overreach” and expressed grave concern about the rising number of civilian deaths in the Palestinian enclave. did.
Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and abducted at least 250 in southern Israel in the October 7 invasion, according to Israeli tallies. Israel retaliated with military attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 28,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Hamas-run Aqsa TV on Sunday quoted a senior Hamas official as saying that an Israeli ground attack in Rafah would “ruin” hostage exchange negotiations.
(Reporting by Emily Rose and Nidal Al Mughrabi; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Jerry Doyle)
