Israeli missiles hit tents in an area west of the city of Rafah that was supposed to be safe from attack.
Dozens of people were killed and dozens more injured after Israeli missiles hit a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, which was in a designated safe area.
Wafa news agency, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said many of those who died were “burned alive” inside their tents in the Tal as-Sultan area.
It put the death toll at 40, while the Reuters news agency quoted Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for Gaza's Health Ministry, as saying 35 people had been killed and dozens more wounded.
Witnesses told local media that at least eight missiles had hit the camp on Sunday around 8:45 p.m. local time (17:45 GMT).
Al Jazeera's Sanad fact-checking agency said the attacks targeted the Brix camp west of the city of Rafah. An aerial photograph taken on May 24 shows hundreds of tents in the area, which was near a UNRWA warehouse.
The Israeli attack followed Hamas's first rocket attack on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv in months.
Israel said the eight Hamas rockets were launched from the Rafah area, where its forces continued a ground attack despite an order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt operations there.
The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound in Rafah and that the attack was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence information.”
The attack killed Hamas' chief of staff in the West Bank and another senior official behind deadly attacks against Israelis, he said, adding that he was “aware” of reports that “several civilians in the area were injured” and that the incident was ” under control”. review”.
The attack caused a massive fire, which Palestinian Civil Defense teams managed to extinguish after about 45 minutes.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah was receiving an influx of casualties and that other hospitals were also taking in large numbers of patients.
“The airstrikes burned the tents, the tents are melting and people's bodies are also melting,” said one of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah, according to the Reuters news agency.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its acronym MSF, said that “dozens of injured people,” as well as more than 15 dead, had been transferred to a center it supports.
“We are horrified by this deadly event, which proves once again that no place is safe,” the group wrote on social media platform X, reiterating its call for an immediate ceasefire.
