Gaza officials call Israeli airstrike on Rafah displacement centre a ‘massacre’

PHOTO: Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, May 26, 2024.  © Screengrab, Reuters TV

Gaza officials said Israeli strikes on a center for displaced people killed dozens in a “massacre” near the southern city of Rafah on Sunday, while the Israeli army said it had targeted Hamas militants. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said in a statement that the strikes “claimed the lives of 35 martyrs and left dozens injured, most of them children and women”. Read our live blog for all the latest developments on the Israel-Hamas war.

Summary:

• Israeli air strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens in an area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah designated for the displaced, Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said.
• The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound in Rafah and that the strike was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence.”
• Rocket sirens sounded across central Israel, including in Tel Aviv, for the first time in months on Sunday, as Hamas claimed to have fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza. No casualties were reported.
• At least eight people were killed on Sunday by Israeli strikes in villages across southern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said.
• At least 35,984 Palestinians have been killed and 80,643 wounded in Israel’s war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing
• Amnesty International on Monday urged the International Criminal Court to investigate as war crimes three recent Israeli strikes that killed 44 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)