Deadly fire sows despair and grief among Gaza residents after Israeli strike

By Mohammed Salem

RAFAH, Gaza (Reuters) – The al-Attar family was praying and preparing their children for bed in southern Gaza when they heard a loud noise. Immediately, a fire broke out around their informal hut and the children started screaming.

Israel was again pulverizing Gaza and the airstrike caused a fire that raged Sunday evening in a designated camp area for displaced people in the Tel Al-Sultan district of the city of Rafah.

Terrified camp residents ran to try to escape the flames, survivors said.

“Our room was filled with shrapnel… Missiles or bombs weighing tons are falling on zinc,” said Umm Mohamed al-Attar, surveying the destroyed camp of tents and corrugated iron barracks.

“There was a woman with disabled children who was martyred at her bedroom door. What was her crime?… Our neighbor, may God have mercy on him, was praying and was martyred; his brain ended up against the wall.

Gaza health authorities said 45 people, mostly women, children and the elderly, had been killed. The toll sparked outcry among world leaders, and Israel's top military prosecutor called the airstrike “very serious” and said an investigation was underway.

Thousands of Palestinians took refuge in Tel Al-Sultan after Israeli forces launched a ground offensive east of Rafah more than two weeks ago.

After daybreak, people searched the debris for personal belongings.

“Gaza burns every day, every day and every hour. They (Israelis) were burned once, but we burn every day. Our children, our elders, our women and our homes burn every day in Palestine,” said Jamal al-Attar. , a camp resident and uncle of Umm Mohammed.

Housewife Manal Salman inspected the charred cage.

“We were here, in this exact place, displaced, we were here in tents and suddenly we saw rockets falling on us in the same place,” she said.

“We didn't know where to go, it was dark and there were no ambulances, they didn't come right away. We looked around – martyrs here and martyrs there – and now we are displaced.”

Collecting items from the ruins of his temporary home, Talal Saeed Salman said his family would now have to move for the eighth time since the war began.

“Where are we going to go – help me understand, where are we going to go?” he said while carrying a plastic tub.

“How long will we remain thus disgraced?”

Commenting on the Tel Al-Sultan incident, an Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday that the first reports from an overnight airstrike against Hamas commanders in the Gaza town of Rafah were of a fire which broke out after the strike, killing civilians.

More than 36,000 Palestinians were killed during the Israeli offensive, according to Gaza's health ministry. Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli counts.

(Writing by Michael Georgy, edited by William Maclean)