Israeli Airstrikes killed at least 35 people and wounded dozens more in the southern Gaza City of Rafah, that according to Palestinian officials. The attack comes two days after judges at the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to haul its military assault on the city. I'm Michelle Martin, that's Amartina's, and this is Up First from NPR News. Relief efforts are underway in Papua New Guinea where a landslide decimated a village. My has support been so slow to arrive.
And the U.S. is focused on repatriating the remains of military service members who were killed in wars that happened more than 70 years ago. Probably about 60 to 70 percent were dealing with now. This message comes from NPR Sponsor Shopify, the global commerce platform that helps you sell and show up exactly the way you want to. Customize your online store to your style. Find up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash NPR.
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Visit SWA-TVA.com slash NPR and save an additional $200. The Gaza Health Ministry says 45 people are dead after an Israeli-Airstrike hit Rafa. The attack started a fire and encampment there, injuring hundreds, and was supposed to be a safe zone for people displaced by the war. World leaders condemned this right. This strike comes just days after the UN's international court of justice ordered an immediate halt to the Israeli operation in Rafa. NPR's Hadeel Alsalchi joins us now from Tel Aviv.
So what happened in Rafa last night? Yeah, late last night, the Israeli military says it was targeting a Hamas installation and that it killed two senior Hamas militants. This strike caused a fire in a tent encampment where dozens of displaced Palestinians were sheltering. Now that tent encampment was an area considered to be safe for refugees. What's been the reaction there? That's right.
The strike hit the Western neighborhood of Tel-Aseltran in Rafa, which the Israeli government had designated as a safe and humanitarian zone. The Israeli military in fact dropped leaflets last week, telling people that humanitarian aid would be available there. NPR's producer in Rafa and his father was at the scene of the strike and he spoke to people there. What we can see here is a total destruction.
And when we talked here to multiple persons, they told us that we cannot even realize if this is a reality of a dream or a evening or nightmare. We're expecting that we are living inside of the safe area, the one that the Israeli announced before. Before this month, Rafa had been the last refuge for Palestinians during this war with so much of Gaza being devastated. In fact, almost 1.3 million Palestinians were sheltering in Rafa.
But now the United Nations says over 800,000 have fled since the Israeli military expanded its ground operations there. But it's still densely populated in the areas that are not under evacuation order. What do we know about the people who were killed? Yeah, the Gaza Health Ministry says many people are still under the rubble and that the majority killed were women and children. And officials say that the number of killed will probably rise. MPR talked to Dr. James Smith.
He's an emergency doctor working just outside of Rafa. He said that many of the injured were taken to a trauma stabilization center in Telo Sultan and then referred to surrounding field hospitals for further treatment. People were hearing literally burned alive in their tents. The trauma stabilization team that we work alongside have received people with varying degrees of injury. He said that the air strike is the worst he's seen in the weeks he's been working in Gaza.
You know, the timing of this strike comes just after the international court of justice ordered the Israeli military to halt its campaign in Rafa. And also after Israelis are protesting for their government to negotiate a ceasefire to bring hostages home, given all that and everything else, what's the state of negotiations to end the war? I mean, for weeks there have been talks about the talks. Israeli media is reporting that officials say that negotiations are supposed to resume next week.
There were some high level discussions in Paris this weekend, the Mossad, the CIA and the Qatari Prime Minister were all there. The talks have been breaking down over and over again in the past months. And Prime Minister Netanyahu is under great domestic pressure to come to a deal to release the remaining hostages in Gaza. But he's also being pressured by hardliners in his government who don't want to complete ceasefire. That's MPR's had deal, Al-Salchi in Tel Aviv. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing in Papua New Guinea where hundreds of people are fear dead following a massive landslide. Yes, there remains of only six people have been recovered since the landslide on Friday buried more than 150 homes in the island nation's remote anger province. The UN's migration agency estimates nearly 700 people may have died while the country's government has nearly tripled that estimate.
During now by Stephen Gedgetz, he's a foreign affairs reporter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Stephen, what do we know about the rescue and recovery efforts starting with this new figure from the government? Yeah, there have been two separate figures, as you mentioned, that have been put out. It's quite confusing. The UN says around 675 people have been killed. Papua New Guinea's government has suggested that figure could be closer to 2000, perhaps even more.
But it's difficult to get a handle on it because so few bodies have been recovered. As you mentioned, the recovery effort is painfully slow. That's largely because the area, which we're talking about here, is very, very remote. So there's simply no way, at least at this stage, to get heavy earth moving equipment is.
So many people in this part of Enga Province are essentially digging through huge mounds of rubble, sometimes six or eight meters in height with their bare hands, with sticks, and if they're lucky with shovels, so it's painfully slow progress. What is it about the region that makes it very, very difficult to respond to a disaster? I mean, I know it's a remote region, but what else makes it difficult? Yeah, there are a few things here.
Not only is it remote, but when land slips do happen, and it happens quite a lot, it's a lot because it's such mountainous terrain, the roads which aren't of great quality are washed away very quickly and very easily. So that means if you want to get through, it takes time, or you have to use something like a helicopter. And helicopters, as you can imagine, are not non-existent in Papua New Guinea, but they are in short supply. Then the other thing to consider sadly is tribal violence.
There's been a resurgence in that tribal fighting over the last year or two. It's a long-standing problem, but it's got worse. And so that's another thing that's authorities. Having UN agencies in other countries like Australia have to weigh up closely as they look to try and go in. The last thing they want to do is get caught up in that. So that's yet another barrier to effective assistance. Well, what about the thousand people at least have been displaced?
What are some of the biggest concerns for survivors? Yeah, well, it could be far more than that because not only are you looking at the people who are immediately displaced, there are also now murmurs that people who are essentially a bit further down the mountain, some eight or even ten thousand people, they may need to be evacuated as well because of these persistent concerns that the mountain, which essentially partially collapsed on Friday, is that it may collapse further.
So you've not only got around a thousand or perhaps more people who need shelter and water, some streams have been buried in the debris, but you've also got potentially eight or ten thousand people further down the mountain who may have to move. That's an enormous, enormous logistical ask on the Papua New Guinea government. So, you know, there's been a request for assistance. What's the status of that request for international support? Well, only one government has responded so far.
That's the Australian government, which only a few minutes ago actually announced that it would make an initial contribution of $2.5 million. So not a huge amount to essentially bring in additional assistance experts who are able to coordinate emergency responses, as well as emergency supplies. I don't know exactly what that means, but I imagine things like fresh water, meal packs, and potentially blankets or utensils. But I don't think this will be the last commitment.
A number of countries, including New Zealand, France and China, have already said that they're willing to make a contribution as well. I think the main challenge will be not so much bringing in donors, but coordinating the response, particularly given the constraints that we see up in Papua New Guinea in terms of getting supplies on the ground.
So there are plenty of willing countries who want to help the difficult thing will be making sure they're not treading on one another's toes and that any responses effectively coordinated. Any ideas asked to what caused this landslide to be so devastating, or is it maybe too early on that? Look, it's probably too early to say at this stage. I mean, this, the first thing to say is that this is not an unusual event. Land slips and landslides happen quite regularly in the highlands.
This does seem to be a particularly devastating one, just the scale of it is extraordinary. I mean, the ABC among other organisations have reported before about the way that land clearing and the use of plantations in the highlands have made these things more likely. But whether either land clearing or plantations have directly contributed to this landslide or not, we simply don't know.
It may be that it's just a very large one, which has had the very terrible misfortune to land directly on a fairly highly populated area. It's simply too early to say at this stage. That's Stephen Gedgetz, a foreign affairs reporter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Stephen, thanks. Thanks so much. It's Memorial Day, the day Americans honour members of the military who died while serving their country.
Maybe UNC's Jay Price has been reporting for years on the nation's efforts to find and identify those declared missing in past wars, but something has profoundly shifted in all those years. Jay joins us now with more Jay. What's changed? Hey, they're right. So, this whole idea of going to great lengths to account for these remains is normalized now. But 50 years ago, it was all about the families of those missing in the Vietnam War, the POWMI movement. And, you know, those black flags, right?
They mobilized and persuaded the government. This was the right thing to do. But there are now just a few hundred MIAs from that war who potentially can be found. So those recoveries have slowed to maybe a couple of years. But there's funding and a national will now to do this. Thanks to those POWMI activists and the goal is to identify about 200 MIAs a year. So nearly all the cases these days have to be from World War II and the Korean War.
Wow. So what does that mean then when the military reaches out to family members? Well, I'll let one of the Army case officers who notify and work with the families to set up memorial ceremonies tell us. Probably about 60 to 70 percent we're dealing with now. Never knew the soldier. That's William Cox. In one case he's working on now he's down to his 16th and final distant family member trying to find one who cares enough to act as next of kin.
Last week I talked with a family member who got that call Barbara Weiss of Newburn, North Carolina. The case officer first asked if her grandparents were still alive then he worked down the list. Here's Barbara. Then the next one would be an aunt and then they were asking about my uncle how he was gone. And they asked you know, Bertress, I said that's my mother. Can we talk to her? And I said, she's passed too. And he mentioned my aunt's name, Demail. And I said, no, she's passed too.
Most of those left didn't even know their fallen relative. At most they can just recall family stories. And I should underline the extraordinary links the US goes to for these cases. Links no other nation comes close to. In fact, most other countries don't even bother with this at all. The search teams, the lab work, it's some of the most sophisticated in the world. So Jay, I got to ask and I know this is a terrible question before I ask it.
But if no one is left alive who knew these troops, I mean is it even worthwhile to keep doing this? Well, I put that to anthropologist Sarah Wagner of George Washington University who's written a lot about this. And she says absolutely. Ultimately, this is about belonging and it is about a state sort of performing the necessity of belonging and the need to take care of its military past, present and future.
So it's aimed at any family that's lost to service member and it tells current troops that the nation cares about them and cares a lot. She also sees this as a message, one about strengthening the things that bind us all together as a society. In fact, at one funeral last fall, about a thousand people turned out just to pay respects to someone they never knew. Not a single member of the soldiers family was still alive. That's WNC's Jay Price Jay fascinating stuff. Thank you.
Thanks for having us. And that's up first from Monday, May 27th, the May Martina's. And I'm Michelle Martin for your next listen, check out Consider This from NPR. It seems like every year we hear the same thing that this will be the busiest summer travel season ever. But this one really does stand out. Listen to Consider This for Tips to Survive the summer vacation season. Today's episode of up first was edited by John Hilton and resuscitation Lisa Thompson and H.J.
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