The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and expatriates confirmed that Israel "has begun to destroy the city of Rafah in southern Gaza and did not wait for anyone's permission, nor did it announce this to avoid international backlash." The ministry strongly condemned the "brutal and bloody bombardment carried out by the occupying forces against our people, which has escalated crazily since yesterday, focusing this morning on targeting homes above their residents in Rafah, resulting in dozens of martyrs, wounded, and missing under the rubble."
The ministry deemed the escalation of this bloody bombardment in Rafah as a serious beginning to widen the crimes of the occupation there, despite the presence of more than a million displaced persons in the area, showing no regard for their lives and a formal Israeli disregard for international and American calls to protect them and secure their full humanitarian needs.
The ministry observed that "the expansion of genocidal crimes to include Rafah coincides with the start of U.S. Secretary of State Blinken's visit, who confirmed in his recent statements the absence of any serious Israeli plan to protect civilians in Rafah and called on Israel to do so."
