RAFAH, Palestinian Territories â Israel faced a wave of international condemnation Monday over a strike that Gaza officials said killed 45 people when it set off a fire that ripped through a tent city for displaced Palestinians.
Israel said it was looking into the âtragic accidentâ and its impact on civilians after the latest mass casualty event in the Gaza war, which has raged since October 7.
Adding to already heightened tensions since Israel launched a ground operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in early May, the Israeli and Egyptian militaries reported a âshooting incidentâ Monday that killed one Egyptian guard in the border area between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip.
READ: Netanyahu: Deadly Israeli strike in Rafah was result of âtragic mistakeâ
Both forces said they were investigating.
Israelâs military said Sunday eveningâs attack in the southern Rafah area had targeted and killed two senior Hamas operatives â but it also sparked a fire that Palestinians and many Arab countries condemned as a âmassacreâ.
A US National Security Council spokesperson said Israel âmust take every precaution possible to protect civiliansâ.
The Israeli military said it was launching a probe.
âThere is no safe place in Gaza. This horror must stop,â UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres posted on social media, as diplomats said the UN Security Council will convene Tuesday in an emergency session to discuss the attack.
Displaced Gazan Khalil al-Bahtini was preparing to leave the impacted area, telling AFP Monday that âlast night, the tent opposite to ours was targeted.â
READ: Israel strikes Rafah after UN court orders halt to offensive
âWe have loaded all our belongings, but we donât know where to go.â
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government was investigating the âtragic accidentâ which he told parliament occurred âdespite our best effortsâ to protect civilians.
Relatives of captives held in Gaza, who have increased pressure on Netanyahuâs government demanding action to secure a hostage release deal, heckled him from the public gallery as he was speaking, and raised posters of their loved ones.
Israel launched the attack on Rafah late Sunday, hours after Hamas unleashed a barrage of rockets at the Tel Aviv area, most of which were intercepted.
Israelâs army said its aircraft âstruck a Hamas compound in Rafahâ and killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, senior officials for the militant group in the occupied West Bank.
Gazaâs civil defense agency said the strike ignited a fire that tore through a displacement centre in northwestern Rafah near a facility of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
âWe saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs ⌠We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly,â said civil defense agency official Mohammad al-Mughayyir.
One survivor, a woman who declined to be named, said: âWe heard a loud sound and there was fire all around us. The children were screaming.â
âDangerous violationâ
Footage from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society showed chaotic nighttime scenes of paramedics racing to the attack site and evacuating the wounded.
Mughayyir said the rescue efforts were hampered by war damage and the impacts of Israelâs siege, which has led to severe shortages of fuel and âwater to extinguish firesâ.
The Israeli attack sparked strong protests from mediators Egypt and Qatar, as well as from other regional governments.
Egypt deplored the âtargeting of defenseless civiliansâ, calling it part of âa systematic policy aimed at widening the scope of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip to make it uninhabitableâ.
Jordan accused Israel of âongoing war crimesâ, Saudi Arabia condemned âthe continued massacresâ, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed âto hold these barbarians and murderers accountableâ.
Qatar condemned a âdangerous violation of international lawâ and voiced âconcern that the bombing will complicate ongoing mediation effortsâ towards a truce.
The African Union chair Moussa Faki Mahamat said on X that âIsrael continues to violate international law⌠in contempt of an ICJ ruling two days ago ordering an end to its military action in Rafah.â
The top world court, the International Court of Justice, on Friday ordered Israel to halt any offensive in Rafah and elsewhere that could bring about âthe physical destructionâ of the Palestinians.
âHell on Earthâ
The war started after the October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israelâs retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,050 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territoryâs health ministry.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA which has been central to aid operations in the besieged territory during the war, said on X that âwith every day passing, providing assistance & protection becomes nearly impossibleâ.
âThe images from last night are testament to how Rafah has turned into hell on Earth,â he said, citing âheavy movement restrictionsâ, Israeli strikes and Hamas rocket launches, and other âchallenges ⌠that do not allow us to distribute aidâ.
Dr Suhaib al-Hams, acting director at Rafahâs Kuwait Speciality Hospital, said Monday it was now out of service and being evacuated after Israeli shelling hit the gate and âkilled two medicsâ.
On Tuesday, Spain, Ireland and Norway are due to formally recognize a Palestinian state â a step so far taken by more than 140 UN members, but few western powers.
Israel opposes the move and on Monday announced punitive steps against Madrid, ordering its consulate in Jerusalem to stop offering services to Palestinians from June 1.