'No policy changes': Israel's attack on Rafah tent camp does not cross red line, says US 

Israeli strike on an encampment in Rafah seems to have made no impact on US arms shipment to the warring country as Washington says that Israel “did not cross any red lines” by carrying out the attack.

National Security Spokesperson John Kirby said, “As a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to,” adding that the US is closely monitoring the situation that it described as “tragic.”

Over the weekend, an Israeli airstrike triggered a fire that killed 45 people in a tent camp in the Gazan city of Rafah.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military is trying to pin the blame on Hamas by trying to investigate reports that a strike it carried out against commanders of the Islamist terrorist group in Rafah had caused the fire.

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When asked if the latest deadly strike would prompt US to withdraw its military shipment to Israel, Kirby said, “I believe that’s what I’ve been saying here. We’ve also said we don’t want to see a major ground operation in Rafah that would really make it hard for the Israelis to go after Hamas without causing extensive damage and potentially a large number of deaths. We have not seen that yet.”

Speaking about the presence of Israeli tanks in Rafah, the spokesperson said, “We have not seen them go in with large units, large numbers of troops, in columns and formations in some sort of coordinated manoeuvre against multiple targets on the ground.”

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The airstrike drew global condemnation from leaders like Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz calling for an immediate ceasefire in Rafah.

On Tuesday, Israel’s military denied striking a tent camp west of Rafah after Gaza health authorities said Israeli tank shelling had killed at least 21 people there, in an area Israel has designated a civilian evacuation zone.

Two days after an Israeli airstrike on another camp stirred global condemnation, Gaza emergency services said four tank shells hit a cluster of tents in Al-Mawasi, a coastal strip Israel designated as an expanded humanitarian zone where it advised civilians in Rafah to go for safety.

With inputs from agencies