TEL AVIV — The Israeli airstrike that killed at least 40 Palestinian civilians in Rafah on Sunday is yet another link in a chain of disasters proving the aptness of the cliche that "everything that can go wrong, will go wrong."
The Israeli military said it had carried out a precise airstrike on a Hamas compound, targeting and killing two senior militants. But as more details emerged, the attack turned out to be one of deadliest in the war, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call it a "tragic mishap." The Israeli military said it had opened an investigation into the deaths of Palestinians civilians.
The attack comes only days after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled May 24 that Israel must stop its assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah, "and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
How Israel explained Rafah
