Israeli Forces Push Into Central Rafah

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israeli attacks on Rafah, Taiwan passing legislation that could favor China, and mass evacuations in Papua New Guinea.

Tanks in Rafah

Israeli tanks advanced into the center of the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday for “targeted” and “precise” close-quarter combat. The offensive defies an emergency order issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last Friday telling Israel to stop all operations in the governorate.

The advance follows intense international condemnation over Israel’s deadly strike on a tent camp in Rafah’s Tel al-Sultan neighborhood on Sunday, roughly 1 mile from a designated humanitarian area. The attack sparked a massive fire that killed at least 45 Palestinians, including women and children, and injured around 200 others. Israeli officials said the operation targeted two senior Hamas militants: Yassin Rabia, Hamas’s chief of staff for the West Bank, and Khaled Nagar, a top regional official for Hamas.

The U.N. Security Council convened an emergency meeting, requested by Algeria, on Tuesday to discuss the fatal incident. “There is no safe place in Gaza,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres posted on X on Monday, seeking an immediate end to the fighting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sunday’s strike a “tragic mistake” on Monday and ordered an internal investigation. Military spokesperson Daniel Hagari suggested on Tuesday that Israel’s munitions alone could not have ignited a fire of that size, saying “weapons stored in a compound next to our target, which we did not know of, may have ignited as a result of this strike.”

At least 29 more people were killed in two separate Israeli attacks on Rafah on Tuesday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed since the war began nearly eight months ago to more than 36,000 people. One of the assaults targeted Tal al-Sultan camp, which is located next to a U.N. warehouse and is only around 150 meters from where Sunday’s strike occurred.

Cease-fire negotiations continued this week, with Israel providing Qatari, Egyptian, and U.S. mediators on Monday with an updated hostage release proposal. But Hamas representatives have reportedly said they will not engage in truce talks following Sunday’s fire. Meanwhile, Ireland, Norway, and Spain officially recognized the state of Palestine on Tuesday in a bid to accelerate cease-fire efforts. “This is a historic decision that has a single goal, and that is to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday.

Yet tensions continue to mount in the embattled enclave, some of which have spilled into neighboring nations. Hours after Egypt accused Israel of targeting “defenseless civilians” in Sunday’s strike, gunfire killed an Egyptian soldier at a border crossing near Rafah. It is unclear what sparked the incident, but an Egyptian state-run broadcaster cited a shooting between Israeli and Palestinian fighters.

Cairo has grown increasingly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza amid fears that the war could spur mass Palestinian displacement into Egypt. Cairo threatened to downgrade diplomatic ties with Israel after Israel seized control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, and earlier this month, Egypt said it intends to join South Africa’s ICJ case charging Israel with genocide.

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What We’re Following

Legislative headache. Taiwan’s parliament passed a bill on Tuesday that gives the legislature greater control over the island’s budget, including defense spending. It also requires the military, private companies, and individuals to disclose information that parliamentarians deem relevant or else risk criminal charges for refusal. It is unclear whether Taiwan’s executive branch will veto the legislation or pass it on to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te for approval.

Thousands of Taiwanese gathered in Taipei on Tuesday to protest the move, with many people worried that the bill could curb Lai’s governing abilities and favor Beijing. The China-leaning opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party controls Taiwan’s unicameral parliament. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has accused the KMT of forcing the legislation through without proper consultations. DPP members even threw garbage bags and paper planes at their KMT opponents on Tuesday. Lai was sworn into office last Monday.

Mass casualties. Papua New Guinea ordered thousands of people to evacuate their homes on Tuesday to avoid a still-active landslide in the northern Enga region. The landslide first occurred last Friday and has since affected nearly 7,900 people. Local officials estimate that more than 2,000 residents are buried under the rocks. Just six bodies have been recovered thus far.

The area’s main highway is blocked, and the ground remains unstable, “posing ongoing danger to both the rescue teams and survivors alike,” a local official wrote to the United Nations. The landslide covers an area of about 915,000 square feet in the remote village of Kaokalam, more than 370 miles from Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby. “I have 18 of my family members buried under the debris and soil that I am standing on and a lot more family members in the village I cannot count,” local resident Evit Kambu told Reuters.

Sedition charges. Hong Kong police detained six people on Tuesday for alleged seditious intent, marking the first arrests under the city’s new national security law since it was implemented in March. The suspects were accused of using a Facebook page to “advocate hatred” against the governments in Hong Kong and China ahead of the anniversary of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre, which police only referred to as a “sensitive date.”

The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years. One of the individuals arrested was Chow Hang-tung, a prominent lawyer and pro-democracy activist who has been detained since September 2021 for “inciting subversion” under Hong Kong’s first national security law. The China-backed policy has repeatedly been used over the years to crush political dissent and stifle pro-democracy movements.

Odds and Ends

Tourists are poking holes in Japan’s plans to curb poor behavior. Local authorities installed a large black mesh barrier in the town of Fujikawaguchiko last week to prevent sightseers trying to see Mount Fuji from disrupting traffic. But officials have already counted 10 small holes poked into the screen. “It’s about manners. It’s a shame,” a town official told Agence France-Presse, though he said the openings still weren’t large enough to produce quality photographs.