(27 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rafah, Gaza Strip – 27 May 2024
1. Woman crying and praying while walking next to bodies in a medical centre, UPSOUND (Arabic): "We have no friends left, no loved ones and no family, oh God. Your mercy engulfs everything, oh God. Allah is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs. What have we done to deserve this? We fast, pray and worship you God – have have mercy on us. God, we worship you, pray and fast…"
2. Woman crying and praying to God while walking close to covered dead bodies in a medical centre, UPSOUND (Arabic): "We belong to God and to him we all shall return. May God have mercy on you Rasha (loved one), and may you join the martyrs and believers."
3. Dead bodies covered in white shrouds on the ground at medical centre
4. Woman crying and praying to God, UPSOUND (Arabic): "God I pray for our children, for our children and young ones. It is enough what we’ve endured. It is enough, God! We can’t identify our loved ones. We can’t identify them."
5. Man uncovering white shroud to allow an injured man to see the dead body
6. Group of mourners at medical centre
7. Aftermath of an Israeli airstrike that hit a camp of displaced Palestinians
8. Various of people walking around inspecting the damage
9. Crowd gathered around inspecting the damage
10. Close-up of what remains of a tent in the camp
STORYLINE:
Mourners held Islamic funeral prayers on Monday morning in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah for dozens of people who were killed in an Israeli air raid that hit tents and shacks for displaced people.
Relatives and other mourners gathered at the neighborhood of Tal al-Sultan, before taking the bodies for burial in a nearby cemetery, according to an Associated Press journalist.
One woman stood next to covered bodies at a medical centre, mourning her loss and praying out loud to God while crying.
"We have no friends left, no loved ones and no family, oh God. Your mercy engulfs everything, oh God," she said.
Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people Sunday and hit tents for displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said women and children made up most of the dead and dozens of wounded.
The attacks came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population had sought shelter before Israel’s incursion earlier this month.
Tens of thousands of people remain in the area while many others have fled.
The Palestinian Red Cross Society asserted that the location had been designated by Israel as a "humanitarian area."
The neighborhood is not included in areas that Israel’s military ordered evacuated earlier this month.
Footage from the scene of the largest airstrike showed heavy destruction.
Israel’s army confirmed the strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants.
It said it was investigating reports that civilians were harmed.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was in Rafah on Sunday and was briefed on the "deepening of operations" there, his office said.
The airstrike was reported hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months in a show of resilience more than seven months into Israel’s massive air, sea and ground offensive.
Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in dense, residential areas.
AP video by Mohammed Jahjouh
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