Israel pushes deeper into Rafah, airstrikes kill 40 in refugee camp

More than half a million Palestinians have been displaced in recent days by escalating Israeli military operations in Rafah and northern Gaza, the UN said.

Around 450,000 Palestinians have been driven out of Rafah in Gaza's south over the past week, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday. At least 40 people were killed and others injured after midnight on Monday by an Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Palestine TV reported.

Israeli warplanes bombed a residential building owned by the Karaja family in the south of the Nuseirat camp, with children among the casualties, it said.

The Israeli army has repeatedly struck the Nuseirat camp. In a recent attack in late April, Israeli warplanes targeted a populated house in the refugee camp with a number of missiles, killing at least nine Palestinians, including four children, and injuring 30 others.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza has exceeded 35,000, according to health authorities in Gaza.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is appalled by the escalation of military activity in and around Rafah in Gaza by the Israeli military, said his spokesman on Tuesday.

"These developments are further impeding humanitarian access and worsening an already dire situation. At the same time, Hamas goes on firing rockets indiscriminately," said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, in a statement.

Civilians must be respected and protected at all times – in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza. For people in Gaza, nowhere is safe now, said the statement.

Guterres reiterates his urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for the release of all hostages. The secretary-general calls for the Rafah crossing to be re-opened immediately for humanitarian access throughout Gaza, said the statement.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Tuesday that Israel is solely responsible for the "humanitarian catastrophe" that the Palestinians are currently facing in the Gaza Strip.

According to the ministry, Shoukry made the remarks in response to the statements of Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who demanded reopening the Rafah crossing and labelled Egypt as the key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Shoukry affirmed Egypt's categorical rejection of Israel's policy of "distorting facts," stressing that Israel is solely responsible for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

He said the Israeli control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, and the Israeli military operations in the vicinity of the crossing, expose the lives of relief workers and truck drivers to imminent dangers, noting it is the reason for the inability to bring aid through the crossing.

Shoukry also denounced Israel's attempts to hold Egypt responsible for the unprecedented humanitarian crisis facing the Gaza Strip as "a direct result of random Israeli attacks against Palestinians for more than seven months."

The top Egyptian diplomat called on Israel to fulfill its legal responsibility by allowing aid to enter through the land ports under its control.

Prevent the scope of the 'human catastrophe'

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Tuesday condemned the recent remarks by a U.S. senator who said Israel should be allowed to "use nuclear bombs" to end the conflict in Gaza.

He made the remarks in a post on social media platform X after U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, during an interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday, argued that "Israel should be given the bombs it needed to end the conflict in Gaza."

Kanaani said the American senator's "horrifying" remarks in justifying and encouraging the use of nuclear bombs were proof of the extent of "this warmongering spectrum's brutality, complete disregard for humans' right to life and disrespect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

He added the remarks were made by a U.S. senator whose country had always claimed to be the "flagbearer" of human rights and considered itself eligible to value and judge other countries' extent of observing human rights.

Kanaani called on the international community to condemn U.S. support for Israel and stand against such "devilish" statements to prevent as soon as possible the scope of the "human catastrophe" in the Gaza Strip from expanding on a daily basis.

During the interview, Graham criticized a decision by U.S. President Joe Biden to stop the delivery of 3,000 heavy bombs to Israel, calling on the Biden administration to give Israel the bombs it needed to end the Gaza conflict.

(With input from agencies)