A Palestinian medical source told The Associated Press on Sunday that 22 people were killed. Israeli airstrikes on Rafah city in southern Gaza The strikes, which hit tents housing displaced people, came hours after Hamas claimed responsibility for a barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip into central Israel, sending rocket sirens ringing in Tel Aviv and other cities for the first time in months.
The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement that 35 people were killed and dozens injured, many of them women and children. “The Ministry of Health acknowledges that never before in history have such large numbers of instruments of mass destruction been gathered together and used simultaneously in front of the world, as is currently happening in Gaza,” it said in a statement, pointing out severe shortages of water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel.
Witnesses told a CBS News team in Gaza that eight airstrikes hit tents in western Rafah., The reports could not be independently verified. Witnesses said the injured, including civilians, were rushed to an Emirati hospital in the tent, which is part of a camp about 200 meters (about 650 feet) from the largest UN warehouse in the Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the attack in a statement on Sunday night.
“A short time ago, IDF aircraft struck a Hamas compound in Rafah, where Hamas’ main terrorist operatives were operating,” the IDF said in a statement. “The attack was carried out using precision munitions against a legitimate target under international law, and was based on accurate intelligence indicating Hamas was using the area. The IDF is 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.”
Footage from the scene showed extensive destruction, and a Palestinian Red Crescent spokesman said the death toll could rise as search and rescue operations continued in the Tal al-Sultan area, west of Rafah city center.
The association argued that the site has been designated a “humanitarian area” by Israel.
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The strike came two days later. The International Court of Justice in Israel To end the military offensive in Rafah.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant visited Rafah on Sunday and was briefed on “intensified operations” in the country, his office said.
The strikes were reported hours after Hamas unleashed a barrage of rockets from Gaza that triggered air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months, demonstrating Israel’s tenacity more than seven months after the start of a major air, sea and land offensive.
Hamas’ military wing claimed the attack, and rocket fire was heard in central Gaza, according to the Associated Press.
The Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement on their Telegram channel on Sunday that the rockets were fired in retaliation for “the Zionist massacre of civilians,” according to Reuters.
The Israel Defense Forces said eight rockets were fired towards Israel from Rafah in the Gaza Strip, after which air defenses intercepted several of the projectiles.
Militants have fired projectiles at communities around Gaza during the war but have not fired any long-range rockets in recent months.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January, the Associated Press reported.
The tensions came hours after a new agreement with Egypt allowed aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip from southern Israel, bypassing the Rafah checkpoint. Israeli forces took control of the southern city of Rafah earlier this month. Fighting continues in the area, so it is unclear whether humanitarian groups will be able to receive aid.
Egypt has refused to reopen its side of the Rafah crossing until control of the Gaza Strip is returned to the Palestinians. Following a phone call between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt agreed to temporarily allow passage through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the main cargo terminal in the Gaza Strip.
Tsakhrir Abayov/AP
The war between Israel and Hamas, now in its eighth month, has left some 36,000 Palestinians dead, according to local health officials. Around 80% of the population of 2.3 million have been forced from their homes, severe hunger is widespread and U.N. officials say famine is on the rise in parts of the territory.
Hamas sparked the war with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which it killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Hamas still holds about 100 hostages and about 30 bodies after most of the rest were released during a ceasefire last year.
Saturday, CBS News reported that U.S. diplomatic efforts Negotiations on the release of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza are expected to continue next week, with negotiators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States taking part.
“There is progress,” a Biden administration official told CBS News. “Contacts are continuing and we are working closely with intermediaries in Egypt and Qatar. Those contacts will continue over the next week to move the negotiation process forward.”
