Israel denies striking camp near Rafah that Gaza officials say killed 21 people

CAIRO — The Israeli military denied hitting a tent camp west of Rafah on Tuesday after Gaza health authorities said Israeli tank shelling killed at least 21 people there, in an area which Israel has designated as a civilian evacuation zone.

Earlier, defying an appeal from the International Court of Justice, Israeli tanks advanced into the heart of Rafah for the first time after a night of intense bombardment, while Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state , a decision that further deepened Israel's international relationship. isolation.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, but said it did not believe such an operation was underway.

Two days after an Israeli airstrike on another camp drew global condemnation, Gaza's emergency services said Tuesday that four tank shells hit a group of tents in Al-Mawasi, a coastal strip that Israel has designated an expanded humanitarian zone where they have advised Rafah civilians to go. For the safety.

At least 12 of the deaths Tuesday were women, according to medical officials in the Palestinian enclave run by Hamas militants.

But the Israeli military later said in a statement: “Contrary to reports in recent hours, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) did not strike in the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.”

Israel asked about a million Palestinian civilians displaced by the nearly eight-month-old war to evacuate to Al-Mawasi when it launched its Rafah incursion in early May.

Since then, many people have fled Rafah, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, reported Tuesday.

In central Rafah, tanks and armored vehicles equipped with machine guns were spotted near the city's landmark Al-Awda Mosque, witnesses told Reuters on Tuesday. The Israeli military said its forces continued to operate in the Rafah area.

Contempt

International unease over Israel's Rafah offensive, launched three weeks ago, turned to outrage after an attack on Sunday sparked a fire at a tent camp in a western neighborhood of the city, killing at least least 45 people.

Israel said it had targeted two senior Hamas figures and did not intend to cause civilian casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the damage to civilians occurred when “something unfortunately went tragically wrong.”

World leaders expressed horror at the fire in a designated humanitarian area of ​​Rafah where families uprooted by fighting elsewhere had sought refuge, and they urged last week to implement a World Court order to put an end to the Israeli attack.

After a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday on the latest developments in Rafah, Algerian UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama said his country would propose a draft Council resolution to “end to the killings in Rafah.”

The Israeli military said it was investigating whether munitions stored near a compound targeted by Sunday's airstrike caught fire and started the blaze.