Israeli strike hits Rafah region after Hamas barrage

Dozens of people were killed or injured in an explosion at a refugee camp in the Rafah region, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said.

Videos from the scene in the southern Gaza Strip show a large explosion and intense fires.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had targeted two senior Hamas leaders at one of the group’s compounds and would look into reports that the fires had spread to the shelters, injuring civilians.

The strike came hours after Hamas fired eight rockets from Rafah toward Tel Aviv, the first long-range attacks against the city since January.

In a statement released after the explosion in Gaza on Sunday evening, the Israeli army said it had “eliminated” two senior Hamas figures – Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar – in a “precise” airstrike “northwest of Rafah.

The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants with precision weapons.

Hamas-led authorities said 35 people were killed and dozens more injured in a camp for displaced Palestinians northwest of Rafah, far from recent military operations in a designated humanitarian safe zone.

He said women and children were among the dead.

The death toll is likely to rise as search and rescue efforts continue in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, about 2 km northwest of the city center, a spokesman said. of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society cited by the Associated Press news agency.

An eyewitness told the Reuters news agency that the entire Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood was “burned.”

Another witness, Fadi Dukhan, said he was sitting at the door of a house when he heard an explosion.

“Suddenly we heard the sound of a missile,” he told Reuters. “We ran and found the street covered in smoke. We didn’t see anything.”

Upon entering a house, he added, he found no one inside but later found “a girl and a young man who had been cut into pieces.”

All eight rockets were either intercepted by air defense systems or fell into fields.

The barrage of rockets highlights the threat that Hamas still poses to people across Israel, although no injuries have been reported.

It also illustrates the challenges facing the Israeli army as it pushes deeper into southern Gaza to drive Hamas from what it calls its “last major stronghold.”

Hamas’ military wing said it acted in response to the “massacre of civilians.”

The rocket attack comes ahead of new ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, which are expected to resume next week.

He believes Israeli hostages are also being held in the city.

More than 800,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah since the offensive began, according to the UN.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began after Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking 252 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Since then, nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.