TEL AVIV, Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a “tragic mistake” was made in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that set fire to a camp housing displaced Palestinians and, according to local officials, killed at least 45 people.
The strike only added to the surging international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamas, with even its closest allies expressing outrage at civilian deaths. Israel insists it adheres to international law even as it faces scrutiny in the world’s top courts, one of which last week demanded that it halt the offensive in Rafah.
Netanyahu did not elaborate on the error. Israel’s military initially said it had carried out a precise airstrike on a Hamas compound, killing two senior militants. As details of the strike and fire emerged, the military said it had opened an investigation into the deaths of civilians.
Sunday night’s attack, which appeared to be one of the war’s deadliest, helped push the overall Palestinian death toll in the war above 36,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and noncombatants in its tally.
“Despite our utmost efforts not to harm innocent civilians, last night there was a tragic mistake,” Netanyahu said Monday in an address to Israel’s parliament. “We are investigating the incident and will obtain a conclusion because this is our policy.”
Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene in the northwestern neighborhood of Tel Al-Sultan, said rescuers “pulled out people who were in an unbearable state.”
“We pulled out children who were in pieces. We pulled out young and elderly people. The fire in the camp was unreal,” he said.
At least 45 people were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service. The ministry said the dead included at least 12 women, eight children and three older adults, with another three bodies burned beyond recognition.
In a separate development, Egypt’s military said one of its soldiers was shot dead during an exchange of fire in the Rafah area, without providing further details. Israel said it was in contact with Egyptian authorities, and both sides said they were investigating.
An initial investigation found that the soldier had responded to an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, Egypt’s state-owned Qahera TV reported. Egypt has warned that Israel’s incursion in Rafah could threaten the two countries’ decades-old peace treaty.
The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency closed meeting for Tuesday afternoon on the situation in Rafah at the request of Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, two council diplomats told The Associated Press ahead of an official announcement.
Rafah, the southernmost Gaza city on the border with Egypt, had housed more than a million people — about half of Gaza’s population — displaced from other parts of the territory. Most have fled once again since Israel launched what it called a limited incursion there earlier this month. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps in and around the city.
Elsewhere in Rafah, the director of the Kuwait Hospital, one of the city’s last functioning medical centers, said it was shutting down and that staff members were relocating to a field hospital. Dr. Suhaib Al-Hamas said the decision was made after a strike killed two health workers Monday at the entrance to the hospital.
Netanyahu says Israel must destroy what he says are Hamas’ last remaining battalions in Rafah. The militant group launched a barrage of rockets Sunday from the city toward heavily populated central Israel, setting off air raid sirens but causing no injuries.
The strike on Rafah brought a new wave of condemnation, even from Israel’s strongest supporters.
The US National Security Council said in a statement that the “devastating images” from the strike on Rafah were “heartbreaking.” It said the US was working with the Israeli military and others to assess what happened.
French President Emmanuel Macron was more blunt, saying “these operations must stop” in a post on X. “There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire,” he wrote.
The Foreign Office of Germany, which has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, said “the images of charred bodies, including children, from the airstrike in Rafah are unbearable.”
“The exact circumstances must be clarified, and the investigation announced by the Israeli army must now come quickly,” the ministry added. ”The civilian population must finally be better protected.”
Qatar, a key mediator in attempts to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, said the Rafah strike could “complicate” talks, Negotiations, which appear to be restarting, have faltered repeatedly over Hamas’ demand for a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, terms Israeli leaders have publicly rejected.
The Israeli military’s top legal official, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, said authorities were examining the strike in Rafah and that the military regrets the loss of civilian life.
Speaking to an Israeli lawyers’ conference, Tomer-Yerushalmi said Israel has launched 70 criminal investigations into possible violations of international law, including the deaths of civilians, the conditions at a detention facility holding suspected militants and the deaths of some inmates in Israeli custody. She said incidents of property crimes and looting were also being examined.
Israel has long maintained it has an independent judiciary capable of investigating and prosecuting abuses. But rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to fully investigate violence against Palestinians and that even when soldiers are held accountable, the punishment is usually light.
Israel has denied allegations of genocide brought against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. Last week, the court ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive, a ruling it has no power to enforce.
Separately, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, over alleged crimes linked to the war. The ICC only intervenes when it concludes that the state in question is unable or unwilling to properly prosecute such crimes.
Israel says it does its best to adhere to the laws of war. Israeli leaders also say they face an enemy that makes no such commitment, embeds itself in civilian areas and refuses to release Israeli hostages unconditionally.
Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized some 250 hostages. Hamas still holds about 100 hostages and the remains of around 30 others after most of the rest were released during a ceasefire last year.
Around 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes. Severe hunger is widespread, and UN officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.
Netanyahu says deadly Israeli strike in Rafah was the result of a ‘tragic mistake’
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Netanyahu says deadly Israeli strike in Rafah was the result of a ‘tragic mistake’
- Israeli strike in Rafah that set fire to camp housing displaced Palestinians killed at least 45 people
- Strike has added to surging international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamas
UN condemns violence in Gaza and West Bank, urges Israel to resume aid deliveries
- Middle East peace envoy Sigrid Kaag denounces settlement expansions; says ‘nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people’
- She calls on Hamas to release remaining hostages; warns both sides to respect obligations under international humanitarian and human rights laws
NEW YORK CITY: A top UN official on Friday condemned ongoing violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, urged all parties to respect international humanitarian and human rights laws, and called for an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of aid deliveries to Gaza.
During a meeting of the Security Council, the third this week on events in the region, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Sigrid Kaag, also condemned the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and warned that continuing violations of Security Council Resolution 2334 are damaging the prospects for a two-state solution.
Adopted in 2016, Resolution 2334 calls for “immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction,” along with the reversal of “negative trends on the ground that are imperiling the two-state solution.”
In a report presented to the council, Kaag said Israeli authorities have approved about 10,600 new housing units in settlements, including 4,920 in East Jerusalem, despite the resolution’s demand for a halt to such activities.
Her report also highlighted a sharp increase in seizures and demolitions of Palestinian-owned properties. It said that during the reporting period, from Dec. 7, 2024, to March 13, 2025, at least 460 structures were destroyed, displacing 576 Palestinians, including nearly 300 children.
Such actions have been strongly criticized by the UN as a violation of international law, and Kaag reiterated that they undermine hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
“Unfortunately, the high number of fatal incidents across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel precludes me from detailing all,” she continued.
The situation in Gaza continues to be dire, Kaag said, with the UN confirming that at least 3,860 Palestinians were killed during the reporting period, and about 6,000 injured. The humanitarian crisis in the war-battered enclave remains “catastrophic,” as Israeli authorities have halted the entry of essential goods and supplies. Access to clean water is restricted for more than half a million people there, and the already fragile health infrastructure has been severely affected.
Kaag reiterated that the provision of humanitarian aid “is not negotiable” and deliveries must be allowed to reach those in need. She strongly condemned the blocking of aid to Gaza by Israeli authorities, as well as “the widespread killing” and wounding of civilians, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” she said.
Kaag also condemned “indiscriminate attacks and the use of human shields” by Hamas, and stressed that all parties involved must “respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”
She called for the immediate release of the 59 remaining Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and other Palestinian groups during the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, 24 of whom are alive and 35 dead.
“Palestinian armed groups continued to hold hostages in horrific conditions, and fired rockets indiscriminately towards Israel,” said Kaag. “Hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally.
“I strongly condemn the reported ill-treatment of hostages. I remain appalled that there are reasonable grounds to believe that hostages may be subjected to sexual violence and abuse. I also reiterate my condemnation of Hamas’s abhorrent public displays accompanying the release of living and deceased hostages.”
Kaag also condemned the reported ill-treatment, including sexual abuse, of Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities and said that when detainees are released, this must also be carried out in a dignified way.
Violence in the West Bank continues to escalate, with Israeli military operations and settler-related violence contributing to rising casualty figures. At least 123 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed. Meanwhile, 10 Israelis, including children, have lost their lives in attacks by Palestinians. Rising tensions within Palestinian refugee camps, particularly in Jenin and Tulkarem, have resulted in the widespread displacement of occupants and the demolition of homes.
“The escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank is deeply troubling,” Kaag said. “Alongside the rising death toll, Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank are being emptied and sustaining massive infrastructure damage during Israeli operations.”
Kaag rejected any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from the occupied territories, warning that such action amounts to “a grave violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
She condemned violence on both sides of the conflict and called for a policy of “maximum restraint” from the security forces. Lethal force must only be used when “strictly unavoidable to protect life,” she added.
Kaag also expressed alarm over ongoing attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers, some of which have occurred with the support of Israeli security forces.
In addition, she voiced concern about the ongoing Israeli efforts to undermine the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides vital aid and services to Palestinian refugees.
In her closing remarks, she emphasized the need for a political process within which to resolve the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“We must work collectively to establish a political framework that outlines tangible, irreversible and time-bound steps,” she said.
“A viable two-state solution — Israel and Palestine, of which Gaza is an integral part, living side-by-side in peace and security — is long overdue.”
UAE top, Saudi Arabia third in Arab region in 2025 World Happiness Report
- UAE placed ahead of UK, US in global list
LONDON: The UAE secured 21st place in the 2025 World Happiness Report, ahead of the UK, the US, and France, while also ranking as the happiest country in the Arab world, it was announced this week.
The annual report, compiled by Gallup, evaluated happiness levels in 147 nations based on data collected between 2022 and 2024.
Finland retained its position as the happiest country in the world for the eighth consecutive year, while Mexico and Costa Rica entered the top 10. The US, meanwhile, ranked 24th and the UK 23rd.
Within the Arab region, Kuwait was ranked 30th globally, making it the second happiest country in the region.
Saudi Arabia was in 32nd place, ranking third in the Arab world.
Oman placed 52nd globally, securing the fourth position regionally, while Bahrain ranked 59th worldwide and fifth in the Arab world.
Libya, Algeria, Iraq, and the Palestinian Territories rounded out the regional rankings at 79th, 84th, 101st, and 108th globally, respectively.
The report measured national happiness based on several key factors, including gross domestic product per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, perceptions of corruption, and generosity.
Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza and destroy its only cancer hospital
- Dr. Zaki Al-Zaqzouq, head of the hospital’s oncology department, said: “I cannot fathom what could be gained from bombing a hospital that served as a lifeline for so many patients”
- The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the hospital’s destruction
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip on Friday and blew up the only specialized cancer hospital in the war-torn territory, as Israeli leaders vowed to capture more land until Hamas releases its remaining hostages.
The hospital was located in the Netzarim Corridor, a band that splits Gaza in two and was controlled by Israeli troops for most of the 17-month-long war.
Israel moved to retake the corridor this week shortly after breaking the ceasefire with Hamas. The truce had delivered relative calm to Gaza since late January and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages.
The Israeli military said it struck the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which was inaccessible to doctors and patients during the war, because Hamas militants were operating in the site. Türkiye, which helped build and fund the hospital, said Israeli troops at one point used it as a base.
Dr. Zaki Al-Zaqzouq, head of the hospital’s oncology department, said a medical team visited the facility during the ceasefire and found that, while it had suffered damage, some facilities remained in good condition.
“I cannot fathom what could be gained from bombing a hospital that served as a lifeline for so many patients,” he said in a statement issued by the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the hospital’s destruction and accused Israel of deliberately “rendering Gaza uninhabitable and forcibly displacing the Palestinian people.”
Hospitals can lose their protected status under international law if they are used for military purposes, but any operations against them must be proportional. Human rights groups and UN-backed experts have accused accused Israel of systematically destroying Gaza’s health care system.
UN warns of ‘massive trauma’ for Gaza’s children
- It’s fear on top of fear, cruelty on top of cruelty, and tragedy on top of tragedy
- “Children who had returned to school after 18 months out of school, now back in tents, ... hearing the bombardment around them constantly
GENEVA: The UN warned Friday that all Gaza’s approximately 1 million children were facing “massive trauma” as fighting in the war-ravaged territory resumed and amid dire aid shortages.
Humanitarians described an alarming situation in Gaza amid a growing civilian death toll since Israel resumed aerial bombardment and ground operations this week after a six-week ceasefire.
Sam Rose, the senior deputy field director in Gaza for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, highlighted the psychological shock for already traumatized children to once again find themselves beneath the bombs.
This is a “massive, massive trauma for the 1 million children” living in the Palestinian territory, he told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Gaza.
The breakdown of the ceasefire that took effect on Jan. 19 comes as the population is already dramatically weakened from 15 months of brutal war sparked by Hamas’s deadly Oct, 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“It’s worse this time,” Rose warned, “because people are already exhausted, they’re already degraded, their immune systems, their mental health, (and) population’s on the verge of famine.
“Children who had returned to school after 18 months out of school, now back in tents, ... hearing the bombardment around them constantly.
“It’s fear on top of fear, cruelty on top of cruelty, and tragedy on top of tragedy.”
James Elder, a spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, said traumatized children usually only start to process their trauma when they begin returning to normalcy.
“Psychologists would say our absolute nightmare is that they return home and then it starts again,” he told reporters.
“That’s the terrain that we’ve now entered,” he said, warning that Gaza was the only “example in modern history in terms of an entire child population needing mental health support.”
“That’s no exaggeration.”
Gaza’s civil defense agency said 504 people had been killed since Tuesday, including more than 190 under the age of 18.
The toll is among the highest since the war started more than 17 months ago with Hamas’s attack on Israel.
It has also been a deadly period for humanitarians, with seven UNRWA staff killed just since the ceasefire broke down, bringing the total number killed from that agency alone to 284 since the Gaza war began.
A Bulgarian worker with another UN agency was also killed this week, as was a local staff member of Doctors Without Borders, the medical charity said Friday.
Humanitarians warned the situation on the ground has been made worse by Israel’s decision earlier this month to cut off aid and electricity to Gaza over the deadlock in negotiations to prolong the ceasefire.
“We were able to bring in more supplies during the six weeks of the ceasefire than ... in the previous six months,” Rose said, warning though that that progress was “being reversed.”
He said there was only enough flour in Gaza for another six days.
Asked about Israel’s charge that Hamas has diverted more than sufficient aid inside Gaza, Rose said he had “not seen any evidence” of that.
“There is no aid being distributed right now, so there is nothing to steal.”
He warned, though, that if aid is not restored, “we will see a gradual slide back into what we saw in the worst days of the conflict in terms of looting ... and desperate conditions among the population.”
Meanwhile, Elder described the vital aid items that aid agencies could not bring into Gaza.
“We’ve got 180,000 doses of vaccines a few kilometers away that are life-saving and are blocked,” he said.
He also pointed to a “massive shortage” of incubators in Gaza even as pre-term births were surging.
“We have dozens of them, again sitting across the border,” he said. “Blocked ventilators for babies.”
Former central bank governor Riad Salameh’s case referred to financial prosecution
- PM Nawaf Salam announces Lebanon’s shift to digital governance
- Former economy minister banned from travel on suspicion of corruption
BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced on Friday that the government was working on establishing an executive mechanism to transition Lebanon into a digital state.
Lebanon is focused on using all its resources and connections to leverage external expertise in order to pursue the government’s development goals, he stated during a meeting with a delegation of business leaders.
The Cabinet approved a mechanism for administrative appointments in state institutions on Thursday, which Salam described as “transparent and competitive.”
Media reports in Beirut on Friday characterized this mechanism as a “theoretical qualitative leap and a reformative advancement in the selection of public sector employees. However, the critical factor remains its successful implementation.”
The position of governor of Lebanon’s central bank, the Banque du Liban, is currently vacant as President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Salam have not yet reached an agreement on the most suitable candidate. In the meantime, the judiciary is awaiting the findings of the financial public prosecutor regarding the investigation into the bank’s former governor Riad Salameh.
Salameh has been in pretrial detention for the past seven months on charges of embezzling public funds.
A judicial source told Arab News that Investigative Judge Bilal Halawi had concluded the investigation into Salameh’s case after issuing two in absentia arrest warrants for Salameh’s advisers.
The case has now been referred to Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim for review in preparation for issuing an indictment.
There is no specific deadline for the financial prosecution to respond.
Salameh — along with two lawyers, Michel Tueini and Marwan Issa Khoury, who served as advisers at the central bank — is being prosecuted for allegedly embezzling over $40 million from the bank’s funds. It is claimed that this amount was transferred to Salameh’s account with the assistance of Tueini and Issa Khoury.
In the ongoing pursuit of corruption cases, Judge Jamal Hajjar, the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, has moved to ban former Economy Minister Amin Salam from traveling.
The decision was made based on a report from the National Economy, Industry, Trade, and Planning Committee.
It also included his advisers Karim Salam and Fadi Tamim, as well as financial auditor Elie Abboud.
On Thursday, MP Farid Boustany, the committee’s chairman, lodged a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office against the former minister, his advisers, and Abboud as a signatory.
The complaint alleges “bribery, influence-peddling, blackmailing insurance companies, mismanagement of public funds, and money laundering.”
In response to these accusations, Salam denied the charges, claiming they were part of a “systematic campaign of personal or political targeting” against him and his team.
Salam served as the economy minister for less than four years in the Najib Mikati government.
A report from the Parliamentary Observatory determined that Salam “misused his authority over the Insurance Control Commission, which oversees the insurance sector, for personal benefit at the expense of public funds.”
A judicial source informed Arab News that the travel ban was a preliminary measure aimed at ensuring that the suspects are notified about their upcoming interrogations, scheduled to occur soon at the Palace of Justice in Beirut.
The National Economy Committee of Parliament prepared a dossier detailing “violations” by Salam during his time in office.
The committee had previously summoned him to discuss the oversight of insurance companies by the ministry.
Salam did not attend three sessions, leading the committee to refer the case to the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation and the financial prosecution for further action.
In 2023, sources said suspicions arose after his adviser, Tamim, was accused of blackmailing insurance companies for hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent the revocation of the company’s license.
“Tamim was arrested, and it later came to light that Minister Karim Salam, the brother of the minister, had pressured insurance companies to pay large sums for mandatory solvency studies through a firm owned by Tamim. These actions resulted in accusations of abuse of power and blackmail.
“The National Economy Committee uncovered evidence that former Minister Salam misused public funds, spending over $50,000 a month on his office and engaging in questionable contracts.”
