Dozens reported killed in Israeli strike on Rafah
At least 45 people, including women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a displaced persons camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Videos from the Tal al-Sultan area on Sunday night depicted a large explosion and intense fires. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that two “senior Hamas terrorists” were targeted in the strike and stated they are “investigating the circumstances of the civilian deaths.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the incident as a “tragedy.” Earlier, Hamas had launched eight rockets from Rafah towards Tel Aviv, marking the first long-range attacks on the central Israeli city since January. Since the commencement of the Israeli ground operation in Rafah three weeks ago, approximately 800,000 people have fled, though hundreds of thousands are believed to still be sheltering there.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that Sunday’s airstrike targeted tents for displaced individuals near a UN facility in Tal al-Sultan, about 2 kilometres northwest of Rafah’s centre. Graphic footage showed structures ablaze, with first responders and bystanders carrying multiple bodies.
The Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday afternoon that at least 45 people, including 23 women, children and elderly, had been killed in the strike on the camp.
A senior official in Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence agency, Mohammad al-Mughayyir, meanwhile told AFP that the agency’s rescue workers had seen “charred bodies and dismembered limbs”, as well as “cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly”.