Gaza war: Dozens of dead reported in Israeli attack on Rafah

At least 35 people were killed and scores injured in an Israeli air strike on a camp for displaced Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

Videos from the scene in the Tal al-Sultan area showed a large explosion and heavy fires on Sunday evening.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had killed two senior Hamas officials and were investigating reports that civilians had been harmed.

Hours earlier, Hamas had fired eight rockets from Rafah toward Tel Aviv – the first long-range attacks on the central Israeli city since January.

Graphic footage showed a row of burning buildings next to a banner reading “Kuwaiti Peace Camp ‘1’,” and first responders and passersby carrying several bodies.

“We were sitting safely at the front door. Suddenly we heard the sound of a rocket,” witness Fadi Dukhan told Reuters.

“We ran and found the street covered in smoke,” he said, adding that he and others saw a girl and a young man killed in the explosion.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that it had carried out an airstrike in Tal al-Sultan that killed two Hamas leaders – Yassin Rabia, the chief of staff of the armed group’s fighters in the occupied West Bank, and Khaled Nagar, another senior official in the West Bank wing.

“The Israel Defense Forces are aware of reports that several civilians in the area were injured as a result of the attack and fire. The incident is currently under investigation,” the statement continued.

In an initial statement, it said the attack was “directed against legitimate targets under international law, using precise munitions and based on precise intelligence indicating Hamas use of the area.”

A senior official with the Hamas-run civil defense agency in Gaza said on Monday morning that more than 40 people had been killed. Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP that the agency’s rescue workers had seen “charred bodies and severed limbs,” as well as “cases of amputations, injured children, women and the elderly.”

“We are appalled by this deadly event, which once again shows that nowhere is safe. We continue to call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza,” MSF added.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, described the reports as “appalling”.

“Gaza is hell on earth. Last night’s images are further proof of that,” said a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The head of the Hamas-run government media office, Ismail al-Thawabta, said the camp was away from recent military operations and in a designated “safe zone” to which Israeli forces had ordered civilians in eastern Rafah to flee.

Qatar, meanwhile, warned that the attack could complicate its efforts to mediate a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.

Earlier on Sunday, air raid sirens sounded around Tel Aviv as central Israel was attacked by Hamas rockets fired from near Rafah.

Most of the eight rockets were intercepted by anti-aircraft systems or fell on fields. A house north of Tel Aviv was damaged.

The barrage highlighted the threat Hamas still poses to the population throughout Israel, but there were no reports of injuries.

It also illustrates the challenges facing Israeli forces as they continue to advance into the southern Gaza Strip to drive Hamas out of what it calls its “last major stronghold.”

Hamas’ military wing said it acted in response to “the massacre of civilians.”

About 1.5 million people had already sought refuge in Rafah before May 6, when Israel began what it called “targeted” ground operations in the eastern parts of the city to destroy the last remaining Hamas battalions and free hostages it believes are being held there.

The UN estimates that more than 800,000 people have fled on the orders of the Israeli army and have retreated to an “expanded humanitarian area” stretching from al-Mawasi northwest of Rafah to the southern town of Khan Younis and the central town of Deir al-Balah.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to crush Hamas in response to the group’s cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7. That attack killed about 1,200 people and took 252 others hostage.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, nearly 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then.