Biden’s chemical weapons rain on Gaza’s children as Jews hit Rafah with white phosphorus
By Jonas E. Alexis, Senior Editor - May 9, 2024
BURNED ALIVE. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, warned on Wednesday that a full-scale assault on Rafah would be “a strategic mistake, a political calamity, and a humanitarian nightmare.”
Israel continued to bombard Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah on 8 May, as over one million Palestinians there face an immediate threat after Israeli forces captured the city’s border crossing with Egypt the previous day.
“Overnight and into the early hours of the morning, the Israeli military continued to pound parts of eastern Rafah city,” Al Jazeera reported, adding that health facilities in Rafah are unable to accommodate large numbers of casualties.
Israel also targeted Rafah with white phosphorus munitions, which are illegal to use on civilians and civilian infrastructure and are considered a war crime under international law.
The Israeli army has repeatedly used white phosphorus on civilians in Gaza and Lebanon since the start of the war. Rights groups have called for an urgent investigation after several Palestinian corpses were found vaporized in Gaza, suggesting Israel’s possible use of illegal thermobaric weapons to target civilians.
The Kerem Shalom border crossing was reopened on Wednesday after being shuttered when four Israeli soldiers were killed in a Qassam Brigades rocket attack on a nearby military site days earlier. The Rafah crossing – a key lifeline for Palestinians – remains shut following the army’s seizure of the area.
The UN has warned that Israel’s ongoing operation at the Rafah crossing threatens to seriously hinder humanitarian aid efforts.
Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said on Wednesday that its fighters engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli troops penetrating eastern Rafah.
Several Palestinians were killed and injured, including children, in the heavily intensified Israeli bombardment on Rafah on 7 May. Israel has been bombing the besieged city for weeks.
A four-month-old baby, a six-year-old, and an eight-year-old were killed by an Israeli bombing on the Qishta family home in Rafah on Tuesday afternoon. One man was also killed in an airstrike near the Rafah border crossing.
Israel announced Tuesday morning that it seized Gaza’s side of the Rafah border crossing. Video footage on social media showed Israeli tanks at the Rafah crossing. The army had begun moving towards the crossing on Monday evening.
The launch of the operation at the crossing was accompanied by heavy Israeli bombardment of Rafah.
Rafah is desperately overcrowded with over one million besieged Palestinians, most of whom were displaced from other places of the strip throughout the war. Israel claims the city is Hamas’ final stronghold and its key to victory in the war, and has been planning to invade the city for months.
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, warned on Wednesday that a full-scale assault on Rafah would be “a strategic mistake, a political calamity, and a humanitarian nightmare.”
VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel $ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts.
Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.
Jonas E. Alexis, Senior Editor
Jonas E. Alexis has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He studied education at the graduate level. His main interests include U.S. foreign policy, the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas.