Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens in an area of ​​the city of Rafah designated for displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian health and civil emergency officials said.

The Israeli military said its air force attacked a Hamas compound in Rafah and that the attack was carried out using “precision munitions and based on accurate intelligence.” He said he had eliminated the head of Hamas’ headquarters in the West Bank and another senior official behind deadly attacks on Israelis.

“The Israel Defense Forces is aware of reports indicating that several civilians in the area were injured as a result of the attack and the resulting fire. “The incident is being verified.”

Health ministry spokesman in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip Ashraf al-Kidra said the attack killed 35 people and wounded dozens more, mostly women and children.

The attack occurred in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah, where thousands of people were taking refuge after many fled the eastern parts of the city where Israeli forces launched a ground offensive more than two weeks ago.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah was receiving a large influx of wounded and that other hospitals were also receiving large numbers of patients.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called the Rafah attack a “massacre” and accused the United States of helping Israel with arms and money.

“As a result of the airstrikes, shops are burned, shops are melting, people’s bodies are melting,” said one of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah.

Early Sunday, the Israeli army said it had detected eight shells that had come from the Rafah area, the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues its operations despite a ruling Friday by the U.N.’s top court. ordered him to stop attacks on the city.

Several shells were intercepted. No casualties were reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to convene his war cabinet later on Sunday to discuss ongoing operations in Rafah. Israel says the UN court ruling allows some military action there.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to “Zionist massacres against civilians.”

Rafah is located approximately 100 km south of Tel Aviv.

Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas militants holed up in Rafah and rescue hostages it says are being held in the area, but its attack has worsened the situation for civilians and sparked an international outcry.

Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Rafah on Sunday, local medical officials said. Gaza’s health ministry identified the dead as civilians.

Israeli tanks probed the outskirts of Rafah, near the Gaza border crossing with Egypt, and entered some of its eastern districts, residents said, but have not yet entered the city since operations began in the city earlier this month. .

Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz said the rockets fired from Rafah “demonstrate that the (Israel Defense Forces) must operate in all places from which Hamas continues to operate.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant conducted an operational assessment in Rafah, where he was briefed on the troops’ “operations on the ground and underground, as well as the deepening of operations in additional areas to dismantle Hamas battalions,” his office said in a statement. .

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of public security who is not part of the Israeli military cabinet, called on the army to hit Rafah harder. “To Rafah with all my might,” he wrote in X.

The Israeli offensive has killed some 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli estimates.

Fighting also continued in the Jabaliya area of ​​northern Gaza, which saw intense fighting in the early stages of the war. During one of the raids, the military said it found an armory containing dozens of missile and weapon parts at the school.

He denied Hamas claims that Palestinian militants had kidnapped an Israeli soldier.

Hamas media said an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Jabaliya area killed 10 people and wounded several others. (Reuters).