Daily Times

A civil defence official in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said an Israeli strike on a displacement camp west of Rafah on Tuesday killed at least 21 people, days after a similar strike that sparked global outrage.

Mohammad al-Mughayyir said they were killed in an “occupation strike targeting the tents of displaced people west of Rafah.” Hamas said an Israeli strike had caused “dozens of martyrs and wounded” in the area.

It came as Israeli tanks penetrated the heart of Rafah, according to Palestinian officials, despite widespread condemnation over an air strike on a crowded camp in the southern Gaza city that killed 45 people two days earlier. Israeli tanks were “stationed on the Al-Awda roundabout in the centre of the city of Rafah”, one witness said.

A Palestinian security source said tanks were in central Rafah, where Israeli troops launched a controversial ground assault earlier this month. “People are currently inside their homes because anyone who moves is being shot at by Israeli drones,” one resident, Abdel Khatib, said.

With an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting at 1915 GMT due to discuss Sunday’s strike on the displaced camp, the situation remains tense in Rafah.

In a statement issued hours before the meeting, Israel’s military said the weapons used in Sunday’s strike “could not” have caused the deadly blaze in the Rafah camp.

“Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Sunday evening’s strike, which medics said also wounded hundreds of civilians, drew worldwide condemnation.

The sight of the charred carnage, blackened corpses and children being rushed to hospitals led UN chief Antonio Guterres to declare that “there is no safe place in Gaza. This horror must stop.”