Israeli strikes on an area designated for displaced people killed at least 40 people in a “massacre” near the southern city of Rafah, Gaza officials said.
The strike came hours after Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv and other areas of central Israel on Sunday for the first time in months.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Monday that many bodies were “charred” after the strikes triggered a fire that ripped through a displacement centre in northwest Rafah.
“The massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in the refugee tents northwest of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip has left 40 martyrs and 65 wounded,” said agency official Mohammad al-Mughayyir.
“We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs … We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly.”
‘Gaza is hell on earth’
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said the situation was horrifying.
“Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that,” UNRWA wrote on X.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged” over the strikes on Rafah.
“These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” Macron said on social network X.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ruling must be respected.
“International humanitarian law applies for all, also for Israel’s conduct of the war,” Baerbock said.
‘The children were screaming’
Footage released by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society showed chaotic night-time scenes of paramedics in ambulances racing to the fiery attack site and evacuating the wounded, including children.
“We had just done with the evening prayers,” recalled one survivor, a Palestinian woman who declined to be named.
“Our children were asleep … suddenly we heard a loud sound and there was fire all around us. The children were screaming … the sound was terrifying.”
The Israeli attack sparked strong protests from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and from Qatar which warned it could “hinder” budding steps to revive stalled truce and hostage release talks in the Hamas-Israel war raging since 7 October.
The government media office in Gaza said earlier that the strike hit a centre run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees near Rafah, branding it a “horrific massacre”.
Senior Hamas officials killed, Israel says
Israel’s army said its aircraft “struck a Hamas compound in Rafah”, killing Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for the Palestinian militant group in the occupied West Bank.
It added that it was “aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited, several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review.”
Israel’s army said at least eight rockets were fired towards central areas of the country from Rafah, with strikes targeting the commercial hub of Tel Aviv for the first time in months.
Fighting has recently centred on Rafah, where Israel’s military launched a ground operation in early May despite .
At least 35 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah that hit tents for displaced people. Source: AAP / Haitham Imad
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulance crews transported “a large number” of people killed and injured in the Rafah strikes.
The Palestinian presidency in the West Bank called it a “heinous massacre”, accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting” the tents of displaced people.
Mughayyir said the rescue efforts were hampered by war damage and the impacts of Israel’s siege on the territory amid the over seven-month conflict.
“There is a fuel shortage … there are roads that have been destroyed, which hinders the movement of civil defence vehicles in these targeted areas,” he said.
“There is also a shortage of water to extinguish fires.”
Strikes on Tel Aviv
Hamas’ armed wing said Sunday that it targeted Tel Aviv “with a large rocket barrage in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians”.
“Hamas launched these rockets from near two mosques in Rafah,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
“Hamas is holding our hostages in Rafah, which is why we have been conducting a precise operation” there.
The United Nations has warned of , where most hospitals are no longer functioning.
Last Monday, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said as well as for three top Hamas figures.
On Friday, the International Court of Justice or any other operation there that could bring about “the physical destruction” of the Palestinians.
Israel has bombarded Gaza since Hamas’ 7 October attack in which more than 1,200 people, including an estimated 30 children, were killed and over 200 hostages taken, according to the Israeli government. More than 36,050 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The 7 October attack was a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
