Israeli airstrikes near Rafah tent camps kill 25, wound 50

Israeli forces have shelled tent camps for displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Rafah in Gaza, resulting in at least 25 deaths and 50 injuries, according to health officials and emergency workers in the area.

This incident marks another deadly strike in the Gaza Strip, where countless individuals have been displaced due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. It follows a recent Israeli bombing that caused a fatal fire in a displaced persons camp in southern Gaza, sparking international condemnation, including from some of Israel’s closest allies, over the military’s intensified operations in Rafah.

Eyewitnesses, whose relatives were killed near a Red Cross field hospital north of Rafah, reported to The Associated Press that a second round of fire from Israeli forces hit those who emerged from their tents following the initial strike.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that the hospital was inundated with casualties, including 22 dead and 45 wounded. They condemned the use of “high-caliber projectiles” so close to the facility, which houses hundreds of people, including hospital staff, in nearby tents.

Ahmed Radwan, a spokesperson for Civil Defense in Rafah, stated that witnesses informed rescue workers about shelling at two locations in a coastal area densely populated with makeshift tents. The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed the number of casualties.

The Civil Defense and Red Cross locations appear to be just outside an Israeli-designated safe zone along the Mediterranean coast known as Muwasi. The Israeli military is reviewing the incident but stated that there is “no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF” within the safe zone, without providing further details or specifying intended targets.

Israel has previously targeted areas near the “humanitarian zone” in Muwasi, a rural region lacking basic infrastructure where many displaced Palestinians have set up camps.

Israel asserts that it aims to target Hamas fighters and infrastructure, attempting to minimize civilian casualties. They blame high civilian deaths on militants operating within populated areas.

As Israel’s war against Hamas enters its ninth month, international criticism has grown over the widespread destruction in Gaza and the high civilian toll. The top United Nations court has suggested there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza, a charge Israel vehemently denies.

The attack near the Red Cross hospital began with a loud, flashy munition, according to Mona Ashour, whose husband was killed after stepping out to investigate. “We were in our tent, and they hit with a ‘sound bomb’ near the Red Cross tents, and then my husband came out at the first sound,” she recounted, holding her young daughter outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. “Then they hit with the second one, closer to the Red Cross entrance.”

Hasan al-Najjar said his sons were killed while helping people after the first strike. “My two sons went after they heard the women and children screaming,” he said at the hospital. “They went to save them, and then the second projectile hit, and my sons were martyred.”

The ICRC emphasized that the hospital’s location, marked with the Red Cross emblem, is well-known to all parties in the conflict. The 60-bed field hospital, set up in mid-May, provides emergency surgeries, obstetric, pediatric, and outpatient care, covering an area about the size of a soccer field.

Israel continues its invasion of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians have fled from other conflict zones. The United Nations warns that no place in Gaza is safe, with dire humanitarian conditions as families shelter in tents and cramped apartments without sufficient food, water, or medical supplies.

Elsewhere, Civil Defense teams in northern Gaza recovered the bodies of five people killed in an airstrike on two apartments in Gaza City, which also injured several others. An earlier airstrike on a municipal garage in the city killed five more people.

Fadel Naeem, an orthopedic chief at al-Ahli hospital, reported that 30 bodies were brought in on Friday, describing it as “a difficult and brutal day in Gaza City.”

On Friday, the Israeli army announced that two soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza, without providing details about their deaths. Three other soldiers were severely injured.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have resulted in over 37,400 deaths in Gaza. Israel launched the war following Hamas’s attack on October 7, where militants killed around 1,200 soldiers and civilians in southern Israel and abducted approximately 250 people, according to Israeli sources.