Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have flocked to Sydney Town Hall for an “emergency demonstration” after Israel launched a new attack on the city of Rafah.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least 45 Palestinians and wounded dozens more – many of them believed to be women and children – on Sunday night when it struck an area of the city in the southern Gaza Strip that had been agreed that it would be a “safe zone” for the displaced. for the war.
Horrifying images from the scene showed people desperately fleeing burning tents and a man holding up a child whose head, shockingly, appeared to have been decapitated in the explosion.
The Palestine Action Group, which has been organizing a series of demonstrations across Australia calling for an end to the conflict, was behind Tuesday night’s peaceful gathering, which was closely monitored by police.
Protesters wearing keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress, held Palestinian flags aloft and listened to speakers at the rally who denounced Israel’s actions and called on the Australian government to do more to protect the Palestinian people.
Hundreds of people gathered at the protest outside Sydney Town Hall on Tuesday night to attend an “emergency demonstration” organized by the Palestine Action Group following a bomb attack in the Palestinian town of Rafah in Gaza.
At the Sydney rally, protesters wearing keffiyeh – a traditional Arab headdress – held aloft Palestinian flags and listened to speakers who denounced Israel’s actions.
They called on the Australian government to do more to protect the Palestinian people.
“Israel has committed another horrific massacre in Gaza, this time bombing displaced Palestinians who were sheltering in tents in Tal as-Sultan in Rafah, in an area designated by Israel as a ‘safe area’ that would not be attacked,” wrote the organizers of the demonstration. .
“More than 35 have been killed, mostly women and children, and many burned alive.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that the civilian deaths were a “tragic accident.”
Organizers of the pro-Palestine rally called on the Australian government to do more to protect the Palestinian people.
A Palestinian and his children sit in a destroyed room following the Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Rafah, a “safe zone” in southern Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces are investigating the attack that targeted a “terrorist complex” and killed two senior Hamas officials.
The collateral damage has caused international outrage.
The attack 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 population had sought refuge before the recent Israeli incursion.
On Monday, the White House condemned the Rafah scenes.
“The devastating images following the IDF attack in Rafah last night that killed dozens of innocent Palestinians are heartbreaking,” said a spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s National Security Council.
‘Israel has the right to pursue Hamas, and we understand that this attack killed two senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians.
“But as we have made clear, Israel must take all possible precautions to protect civilians.”
Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted a “tragic mistake” after an Israeli strike in Rafah reportedly killed 45 people, including displaced people burned alive in tents.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged” by Israel’s latest attacks. ‘These operations must cease. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” he stated in X.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ruling of the International Court of Justice must be respected.
“International humanitarian law applies to everyone, including Israel’s conduct of the war,” Baerbock said.
As Israel has expanded its military attack on Rafah in recent weeks in an attempt to root out the last Hamas militants sheltering in the city, more than 800,000 Palestinians have fled the city, deepening the humanitarian crisis inside Gaza.