The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.
White House aware of strike on Rafah, is gathering more info, says spokesperson
US President Joe Biden’s administration is following the situation regarding the Israeli strike on a displaced people camp near Gaza’s Rafah, which according to the Israeli army targeted a Hamas compound and killed several commanders, and according to Hamas authorities killed 35, including civilians.
“We’re aware of the reports about the incident in Rafah and are gathering more information,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council tells The Times of Israel.
Hamas urges Palestinians to ‘rise up and march’ against Israeli ‘massacre’ in Rafah
Hamas says that Palestinians must “rise up and march” against the Israeli army’s “massacre” in Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah, which according to the IDF targeted a Hamas compound and killed two senior commanders.
“In light of the horrific Zionist massacre this evening committed by the criminal occupation army against the tents of the displaced… we call on the masses of our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the occupied territories and abroad to rise up and march angrily against the ongoing Zionist massacre against our people in the sector,” the Palestinian terror group says in a statement.
IDF: Rafah strike killed 2 Hamas commanders responsible for West Bank terror attacks
The commander of Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters and another top official in the terror group were killed in tonight’s Israeli airstrike in Rafah, according to the IDF.
The West Bank headquarters is a Hamas unit charged with advancing attacks against Israel from or in the West Bank.
Yassin Rabia, the head of the West Bank headquarters, and Khaled Najjar, another senior member of the unit, were killed in the strike in the Tel Sultan area of northwestern Rafah, the IDF says. The strike, according to Hamas health officials, killed some 35 people.
The IDF says the strike was carried out based on “precise intelligence.”
Rabia, according to the IDF, “managed all of the military arrays of the West Bank headquarters… was involved in the transfer of funds for terror purposes and directed attacks by Hamas operatives” in the West Bank.
The IDF also says that Rabia committed several deadly attacks himself, in 2001 and 2002, killing Israeli soldiers.
Najjar was involved in directing shooting attacks and other terror activities in the West Bank, and was also involved in funneling funds to Hamas operatives, the military says.
Najjar also carried out several attacks between 2001 and 2003, according to the IDF, killing civilians and killing and wounding soldiers.
The military says it is aware that the strike and a fire sparked by it caused civilian casualties. It says it continues to investigate.
Tlaib: Pro-Palestinian voters will make Biden pay for defending ‘genocidal maniac Netanyahu’
Far-left US Rep. Rashida Tlaib warns that pro-Palestinian Americans will make President Joe Biden’s administration and congressional lawmakers pay for their support for Israel in the upcoming election season.
“It is disgraceful that the Biden administration and my colleagues in Congress continue to smear [anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian students on college campuses] for protesting to save lives — no matter their faith or ethnicity. It is cowardly. But we’re not going to forget in November, are we?” says Tlaib in a speech at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit.
The conference has included speakers affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — a US-designated terror group. Panelists have been heard expressing support for terrorism and other acts of violent “resistance” against Israel, including Hamas’s October 7 onslaught during which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and 252 were taken hostage, mostly civilians.
It is unclear whether attendees infuriated by Biden’s support for Israel will go as far as to vote for Republican former president Donald Trump, but many have led campaigns urging voters to vote “uncommitted” as a form of protest in Biden’s run-away Democratic primary. Some may choose to stay home entirely in what is sure to be a very close election in November.
While Tlaib is a Democrat, her remarks leave some ambiguity regarding whether she’d be okay with Trump returning to office as a result of her frustration with Biden.
“President Biden, I hope you hear us loud and clear. Attacking the authority of the International Criminal Court and interfering in the legal process is nothing more than an attempt to prevent the genocidal maniac [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and senior Israeli officials from being held accountable for their crimes against humanity,” Tlaib says to cheers from the large crowd at today’s conference.
“You are an enabler, President Biden,” she shouts, lamenting his support for security assistance to Israel.
She blasts Biden and US lawmakers for being more outraged by the anti-Israel encampments on college campuses than they are by the scenes coming out of Gaza.
“We’re going to march, and we’re going to move Congress, and we’re going to move the White House. Because they have no other option. We’re not going anywhere,” she warns, closing her speech with chants of “Free, free Palestine.”
Here is Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's full speech at the People's Conference for Palestine in Detroit, Michigan. pic.twitter.com/1BxNm8lMpJ
— Stu (@thestustustudio) May 26, 2024