Israeli airstrike kills 35 in so-called Rafah 'safe zone' where refugees are sheltering

Israel launched a deadly attack on Rafah on Sunday, in what the Palestinian Red Crescent Society called an Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone,” according to the Associated Press.

Doctors said at least 35 people were killed and “many” others were crushed under debris.

The strike comes just two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop its deadly military attack on the besieged enclave of Rafah, an area in the southern Gaza Strip where nearly a million Palestinian refugees have fled.

On Sunday, images from Rafah's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood showed rubble, debris and the destroyed tents of Palestinian refugees burning into the night.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization operating in Gaza, insisted that Israel had publicly designated the space as a “humanitarian zone”, a safe zone for displaced refugees. However, it was not included in a list of evacuation zones ordered by Israel earlier this month.

The attack came hours after eight projectiles were fired into Israel by Hamas, the Israeli military said.

“A certain number” of projectiles were intercepted, they said, and there were no casualties. The long-range rocket attack was later claimed by Hamas' military wing.

In the two days following the ICJ ruling on Rafah, 60 air raids took place in Rafah, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Observatory. Some strikes targeted refugee camps and at least 13 people were killed, including civilians.