Palestinians claim 45 dead in strike on Gaza's Rafah as IDF says it targeted Hamas

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 40 Palestinians on Sunday and wounded dozens in an area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah designated for the displaced, Hamas health authorities said. Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had targeted a Hamas compound and eliminated two commanders in the terror group's ranks.

The strike took place in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah, 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.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the strikes were carried out over "displaced persons' tents near the United Nations headquarters," asserting that the location was designated as a humanitarian zone by Israel. A spokesperson for the organization said the death toll was likely to rise. The Hamas-run health ministry claimed that most of the casualties were women and children.

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The IDF said it had struck a Hamas compound in the Tel Sultan area where senior officials in the terror group were gathered, adding in a statement that "the attack was carried out against terrorists who are a target for attack, in accordance with international law, using precision munitions, and based on intelligence indicating the use of the area by Hamas terrorists."

The Israeli military said the strike had killed Yassin Rabia, the commander of Hamas's so-called West Bank headquarters — a Hamas unit charged with advancing attacks against Israel from or in the West Bank — as well as Khaled Najjar, another senior member of the unit.

According to the IDF, both men carried out several attacks between 2001 and 2003, killing civilians and killing and wounding soldiers.

On Monday, the IDF's chief prosecutor acknowledged the strike on Rafah was a "very grave" incident.

"The details of the incident are still under investigation, which we are committed to conducting to the fullest extent," Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi told a conference hosted by the Israel Bar Association on Monday.  "The IDF regrets any harm to noncombatants during the war.”

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.

"In light of the horrific Zionist massacre this evening committed by the criminal occupation army against the tents of the displaced… we call on the masses of our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the occupied territories and abroad to rise up and march angrily against the ongoing Zionist massacre against our people in the sector," Hamas said in a statement.

Rocket attack on Tel Aviv

The strike came hours after Hamas fired from Rafah a barrage of eight long-range projectiles at central Israel, in the first such attack in four months. The IDF said later Sunday that it had destroyed the rocket launcher used in the attack.

Rafah is located about 100 km (60 miles) south of Tel Aviv.

The attack was swiftly claimed by Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades armed wing, which said it "bombarded Tel Aviv in response to Zionist massacres of civilians."

A home in the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya suffered minor damage from falling shrapnel, police said, and two people suffered light injuries, but no serious losses were reported. One projectile landed next to a school in Kibbutz Sa'ad, lightly damaging a car but causing no injuries.

The IDF also announced the deaths of two soldiers during fighting in Gaza on Sunday.

International condemnation

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country will do "everything possible" to hold "barbaric" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to account over deadly strikes in Rafah.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement accusing Israel of deliberate "bombardment" of the displaced people center and calling on it to "implement the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning an immediate cessation of military operations" in Rafah.

UN Foreign Policy Chief Joseph Borrell echoed the call for Israel to comply with Friday's ICJ order for Israel to cease its operation in Rafah.

"This is really a dilemma how the international community can… force implementation of the decision," he said.

Qatar added that the strike could have diplomatic repercussions, saying it could hinder talks towards a truce and hostage release deal.

Italy said on Monday that Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza were no longer justifiable, in one of the strongest criticisms Rome has made so far against Israel's campaign.

Saudi Arabia also condemned Israel's attack on Rafah, "the latest of which is targeting the tents of displaced Palestinians near the warehouses of UNRWA northwest of Rafah," the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The IDF launched a smaller-scale operation than originally planned earlier this month, but the ICJ ordered Israel to cease the offensive as a result of a petition filed by South Africa. Israel has said that it does not consider itself to be bound by the decision and that it would continue the operation as it had no intention of committing genocide in Rafah.

The IDF's Rafah operation is considered one of the final phases of its war with Hamas, which began on October 7 with the terrorist organization's unprecedented attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were murdered and 252 taken hostage.

The ensuing military campaign has killed over 35,000 Gazans, according to the Strip's Hamas-run health authorities, whose numbers cannot be verified, and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 Palestinian fighters in battle, as well as some 1,000 militants' inside Israel on October 7.

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