Israel faced fierce international criticism on Monday after an airstrike in Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah reportedly killed at least 45 people, most of them civilians, in a center for displaced people on Sunday night.
Israel said the strike targeted two senior Hamas terrorists. But the attack also apparently hit an area in Rafah’s Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah where thousands of people were taking shelter, setting blazes that engulfed several tents and shelters.
By Monday afternoon, the Hamas-run health ministry said that the death toll had risen to 45 and 60 people were wounded. The figures could not immediately be verified.
The Palestinian Authority’s presidency and Egypt both accused Israel on Monday morning of deliberately targeting the center for displaced people.
“The perpetration of this heinous massacre by the Israeli occupation forces is a challenge to all international legitimacy resolutions,” the PA presidency said in a statement, accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting” the tents of displaced people. READ MORE