- Israeli airstrike on Rafah camp kills 40, injures 65
- Hamas rocket fire on Tel Aviv preceded the attack
- Civil defense and Red Cross report extensive casualties
According to Gaza officials, the death toll is now 40 as a result of Israeli air attacks on a camp that houses displaced Palestinians near Rafah in the southern region of the Gaza Strip.
“A senior official at the civil defense agency, Mohammad al-Mughayyir, has informed the AFP news agency that the Israeli occupation army has committed a massacre in the refugee tents north-west of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip, resulting in 40 martyrs and 65 wounded.”
The camp was situated in a secure zone that had been designated. According to witnesses, the camp was attacked by at least eight missiles at approximately 8:45 p.m. local time (5:45 p.m. GMT) on Sunday.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), numerous individuals were “burned alive” within their tents in the Tal as-Sultan region, as reported by the Wafa news agency.
According to Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, the Brix camp, located to the west of Rafah, was the objective of the attacks. In an aerial photograph taken on May 24, hundreds of tents were visible in the vicinity of a UNRWA facility.
Hamas’s initial rocket assault on Tel Aviv, Israel, in months preceded the Israeli assault.
Israel claimed that the eight Hamas rockets were fired from the Rafah region, where its forces have persisted in a ground assault in defiance of an order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to cease operations.
The Israeli military claimed that its air force conducted a strike on a Hamas compound in Rafah, employing “precise ammunition and based on precise intelligence.
It stated that the attack resulted in the deaths of Hamas’s chief of staff for the West Bank and another senior official who was responsible for deadly attacks on Israelis. It also stated that it was “aware” of reports that “several civilians in the area were harmed” and that the incident was “under review.
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After approximately 45 minutes, Palestinian Civil Defence crews were able to extinguish a gigantic fire that was the result of the attack.
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that the number of casualties at its field hospital in Rafah was increasing and that other facilities were also accommodating a significant number of patients.
According to the Reuters news agency, one of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah stated, “The air strikes have caused the tents to burn, and they are now melting, as are the bodies of the people.”
MSF, or Doctors without Borders, reported that “dozens of wounded” and “more than 15 of the dead” had been transported to a facility it supports.
The group reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire on the social media platform X, stating, “We are horrified by this deadly event, which shows once again that nowhere is safe.”
