Extract from ABC News
Israeli air strikes have killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens in an area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah designated for the displaced, Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said.
The strike took place in Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah on Sunday, local time, where thousands of people were taking shelter after many fled the eastern areas of the city where Israeli forces began a ground offensive over two weeks ago.
A Palestinian health official told Reuters dozens of Palestinians were killed and wounded while Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, put the number of deaths at 35.
The strike came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population had sought shelter before Israel's recent incursion. Tens of thousands of people remain in the area while many others have fled.
A spokesperson with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the death toll was likely to rise as search and rescue efforts continued in the neighbourhood about 2 kilometres north-west of the city centre.
The society asserted that the location had been designated by Israel as a "humanitarian area". The neighbourhood is part of areas that Israel's military ordered evacuated earlier this month.
The final death toll was unclear as many wounded were in critical condition, medics said.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri described the attack in Rafah as a "massacre", holding the United States responsible for aiding Israel with weapons and money.
"The air strikes burnt the tents, the tents are melting and the people's bodies are also melting," One of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah.
Israel's military said on Sunday it had carried out a precise strike on a Hamas compound in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but that it was reviewing the incident following reports that the strike caused a fire and civilians were harmed.
"An IDF aircraft struck a Hamas compound in Rafah in which significant Hamas terrorists were operating. The strike was carried out against legitimate targets under international law, using precise munitions and on the basis of precise intelligence that indicated Hamas' use of the area," the military said.
"The IDF is aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review," it said.
Footage from the scene showed heavy destruction and flames.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was in Rafah on Sunday and was briefed on the "deepening of operations" there, his office said.
Hamas fires rockets, no casualties
The Israeli air strike was reported hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months in a show of resilience more than seven months into Israel's massive air, sea and ground offensive.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January.
Hamas' military wing claimed the attack. Palestinian militants have sporadically fired rockets and mortar rounds at communities along the Gaza border, and the military arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group later Sunday said it fired rockets at nearby communities.
The Israeli military said eight projectiles crossed into Israel after being launched from Rafah. It said "a number" of the projectiles were intercepted.
Daniel Hagari said the launcher in Rafah was destroyed.
Reuters/AP
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