Gaza Genocideupdated 49m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 20 February 2025Israel Airstrike Near Rafah Kills Hamas Leaders, Fire Kills Dozens of Palestinian Civilians
7 Other3 Western MainstreamPhoto: Jaber Jehad Badwan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
At least 45 Palestinians killed and about 249 wounded in Rafah camp strike. Israel says two senior Hamas officials were the intended targets.
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Rafah strike, deaths disputed
Israel’s airstrike in the Tel al-Sultan area of western Rafah killed two “senior Hamas terrorists” and triggered a fire that killed dozens of Palestinian civilians, according to the IDF and Gaza health authorities. The BBC reported that at least 45 people were killed, including women and children, in the Israeli air strike on a camp for displaced Palestinians, citing the Hamas-run health ministry.
The New York Times said the Gaza Health Ministry reported the strike killed at least 45 people on Sunday night and wounded 249, while the Israeli military said it was looking into reports that “several civilians in the area were harmed” by the airstrike and a subsequent fire. The IDF told reporters that the incident was a “tragic mishap,” and it said it was investigating the circumstances of the deaths of civilians in the area, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragedy.”
IDF probe and competing explanations
The IDF said it was probing whether a hidden store of weapons or other combustibles caused secondary blasts and helped spread the fire after an airstrike targeted an adjacent area in Rafah.
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told an English-language press conference that “Sadly, following the strike, due to unforeseen circumstances, a fire ignited, taking the lives of Gazan civilians nearby.”
The IDF also emphasized that it “targeted a closed structure away from the tent area,” and it stressed that “There are no tents in the immediate vicinity.”
The Southern Command submitted initial investigation findings to IDF Chief of Staff Major General Herzi Halevi, and it said the point of attack was defined as an area from which Hamas carried out terrorist operations, while a Hamas rocket launcher was “Some 47 meters from the point of attack.”
International pressure and next steps
The United States urged Israel to take every precaution to protect civilians after “devastating images” from the Rafah strike, while it said it understood the strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists. The Times of Israel reported that the IDF opened a probe into the Rafah strike and said the top-tier General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism would investigate unusual incidents amid the war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting in Gaza despite mounting international condemnation, and he said Israel had made attempts to keep civilians safe by evacuating one million Palestinians from Rafah. The BBC said the Israel Defense Forces had seized control of the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing and was discussing a shooting incident with Egyptian authorities, as Egypt’s military investigated the incident in which an Egyptian security forces member was killed.