Zionist Israel carried out a series of bombings and ground attacks against its own designated “safe zone” of Rafah, in the southern part of Gaza, since the last week of May. This defied a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ top court, on May 24 ordering an “immediate halt to the military offensive, and any other action in Rafah.”

On May 26, an Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in Al-Sultan in Rafah killed at least 49 people and injured 250. Two days later, Israeli forces bombed the tent camp in Al-Masawi in Rafah killing 21 Palestinians and injuring 64 people. Half of the victims are children, women and the elderly. The temporary camp, in which Rafah refugees lived under tents, was burnt to ashes.

Rafah is currently sheltering more than 1.5 million Palestinians since Israel attacked Gaza last year. They built shacks and stayed under tents, where there is lack of food and medicine, and conditions were deplorable.

As of June 2, the Zionist Israeli genocide has killed 36,439, including 15,000 children, and injured 82,627. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been driven from their homes.

Filipinos for Palestine

Filipinos continue to support the Palestinians in the face of relentless attacks by Zionist Israel.

On May 30, various mass organizations gathered at the University of the Philippines (UP)-Los Baños to support the struggle of the Palestinian people. A march and gathering was also held in UP Diliman on May 19.

Meanwhile, the PUP for Palestine called on Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, and the Negrenses for Palestine on Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Lacon, to cut ties with Israel officials. This follows meetings of Belmonte and Lacson with Israel officials.

In Canada, Filipino groups joined the May 29 protest in Ottawa to call for an investigation into the Canadian government’s arms sales to the Israel Zionist regime. They also called for the closure of CANSEC, the annual arms expo of the Canadian Association of Defense and Security Industries, which opened in Ottawa that day.