Israel Attacks Rafah Refugee Camp, Killing Dozens - 大象传媒 Magazine Solutions Journalism

May 29, 2024

An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, has. Palestinians displaced by more than six months of genocidal assault had fled to the area in Rafah鈥攆ollowing Israel Defense Force (IDF) instructions that designated the neighborhood a 鈥渟afe area鈥濃€攁nd were taking shelter before they were bombarded. Eyewitness accounts say there was fire everywhere and that people, mostly women and children, were burned alive. Graphic videos of the carnage鈥攊ncluding footage of a man holding up the beheaded body of a child killed in the strike鈥攈ave been circulating on social media since the IDF strike on Sunday, which itself came on the heels of a ordering Israel to 鈥渋mmediately halt its military offensive in Rafah.鈥� the strike was a targeted attack that 鈥渒illed two senior Hamas terrorists,鈥� adding that it was 鈥渋nvestigating the circumstances of the deaths of civilians in the area.鈥�

Meanwhile, the White House to let the incident sway the United States鈥� policy of arming Israel, despite that an invasion of Rafah was a 鈥渞ed line鈥� that could alter U.S. support of Israeli military operations. Rather than debate whether the U.S. should keep sending weapons being , members of the House of Representatives have continued to hold on antisemitism and campus protests for Gaza, grilling university officials for allowing pro-Palestinian student activism.聽

, a prominent civil rights lawyer and executive director of the , spoke with 大象传媒 Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the Rafah strike and House hearings.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.