Dozens killed as Israeli airstrike blasts Rafah refugee camp after Hamas fires rockets towards Tel Aviv
27 May 2024, 07:29
At least 35 have been killed and dozens more are injured in Israeli airstrikes on Rafah.
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The rockets were launched into the southern Gaza city after Hamas launched rockets towards Tel Aviv for the first time in months.
The Israeli airstrike reportedly hit a refugee camp for displaced people, reports from Palestinian medics suggest.
Israel insists it hit a "Hamas compound" in Rafah, taking out two senior leaders.
It added that it would investigate reports that civilians had been killed.
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According to their reports, Hamas' chief of staff for the West Bank and another senior leader within the group were killed in the strike.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-run health ministry said 35 people were killed, the majority of which they say were women and children.
They said it hit "an area crowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced people".
The strikes landed in the Tel Al Sultan neighbourhood of western Rafah.
More than one million displaced Palestinians are understood to be sheltering in Rafah.
Israel has been threatening a full-scale invasion of the city for months, though last week is understood to have agreed to more targeted strikes following talks with the US.
