The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry raised the death toll to 45 Monday from Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, AFP and Reuters reported. Gaza officials said the strike hit tents for displaced people in Rafah, with “numerous” others trapped in flaming debris.
The airstrike came hours after Hamas claimed it fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza toward central Israel as rocket sirens rang for the first time in months in cities like Tel Aviv.The Israeli attack drew swift condemnation from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, France and Qatar which warned it could “hinder” budding steps to revive stalled truce and hostage release talks in the Israel-Hamas war raging since October 7, AFP noted.Gaza’s Ministry of Health said in an earlier statement that, “Never before in history has such a large number of mass killing tools been amassed and employed together in front of the world as is happening now in Gaza,” noting severe shortages of water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel.
Eyewitnesses told CBS News’ team in Gaza that eight airstrikes hit tents in western Rafah, though the reports could not be independently confirmed. The eyewitnesses said the casualties, which included civilians, were rushed to Emirati Hospital. The tents were part of a camp about 200 meters (about 650 feet) away from the largest United Nations warehouse in the Gaza Strip.
Comments are closed for this post.