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Gaza’s health ministry said at least 35 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Gaza Sarafa on Sunday night. The Israeli military said the attack targeted a Hamas compound.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was investigating reports that “several civilians in the area were injured” in the airstrike and subsequent fires. A follow-up statement said two Hamas leaders were killed in the attack.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulance crews had taken “a large number” of victims to the Tal Sultan clinic and the field hospital in Rafah, where few were left and “many” people were trapped in the fires at the site. strike.
The Red Crescent said the attack hit the Tal Sultan area of Rafah, which the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone, and that Israel had asked Palestinian civilians to go to shelters before launching a ground attack on Rafah. The New York Times could not immediately confirm details of the airstrike.
Israel’s advance on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah has come under scrutiny, especially after the International Court of Justice on Friday ordered Israel to halt its military offensive there “immediately.” Although the court has few effective means of enforcing its order, it has increased pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to rein in attacks on Gaza and reduce civilian casualties.
Bilal Al Sapti, a 30-year-old construction worker in Rafah, said shrapnel from the strike blew up the tent where he lives with his wife and two children, but his family was not injured.
“What kind of tent can protect us from missiles and shrapnel?” he said.
Saputi said he saw charred bodies at the strike site and people screaming as firefighters tried to extinguish the flames. “The fire was very intense and spread throughout the entire camp,” he said. “It was pitch black and there was no electricity.”
Médecins Sans Frontières said more than 15 people who died in the Rafah strike and dozens of injured were taken to a trauma stabilization center set up by the organization in Tal Sultan.
Dr. James Smith, a UK emergency expert in Rafah who has been working at the centre, said the attack resulted in the deaths of displaced people who were “seeking some degree of shelter and shelter in tarp tents”.
Speaking at a house a few miles from the trauma center, a distance he said was too dangerous to cross, Dr. Smith said videos shared by his colleagues at the trauma center about the injuries caused by the strike and fire “did It’s some serious injuries.” Worst case I have ever seen. “
Dr Smith said that although the United Nations estimated that more than 800,000 people had fled Rafah in the weeks after the Israeli military announced its offensive, the area remained densely populated.
“These tents are packed very, very tightly together,” he said. “Fires like this can spread great distances in a very, very short period of time with catastrophic consequences.”
He added that the attack was “one of the most horrific things I have seen or heard in the weeks I have been working in Gaza”.
Patrick Kingsley, Jonathan Rice, She is Abu Hewila and Aaron Boxerman Contributed reporting.
