Israeli strikes kill at least 37 Palestinians near Rafah in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli bombings and airstrikes have killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside Gaza City in southern Gaza. Rafah overnight and Tuesday — hitting the same area where strikes sparked a deadly fire days earlier at a camp for displaced Palestinians — according to witnesses, rescue workers and hospital officials.

THE inferno tent camp has sparked widespread international outrage, including from some of Israel's closest allies, over the growing military offensive on Rafah. And in a sign of Israel's growing isolation on the world stage, Spain, Norway and Ireland have officially recognized a Palestinian state Tuesday.

The Israeli military suggested that Sunday's fire at the tent camp may have been caused by secondary explosions, possibly caused by Palestinian militant weapons. The results of Israel's initial investigation into the fire were released Tuesday, with military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari saying the cause of the fire was still under investigation, but that Israeli munitions used – targeting what the army said was a position with two senior Hamas officials. activists – were too small to be the source.

The ensuing strike or fire may also have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the camp. The fire killed 45 Palestinians, according to a count by Gaza health authorities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a “tragic accident.”

Israel's assault on Rafah, launched on May 6, has caused more than a million people to flee the city, the United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees said Tuesday. Most have already been displaced several times over the past eight months. war between Israel and Hamas. Families are now dispersed makeshift tent camps and other war-ravaged areas.

Strikes in recent days have hit areas west of Rafah, where the army had not ordered civilians to evacuate. Israeli ground troops and tanks operate in eastern Rafah, in the city's central neighborhoods and along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Bombings hit the Tel al-Sultan district, west of Rafah, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, killing at least 16 people, the Palestinian Civil Defense and the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Seven of the dead were in tents next to a U.N. facility, about 200 meters from the scene of Sunday's fire.

“It was a night of horror,” said Abdel-Rahman Abu Ismail, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has taken refuge in Tel al-Sultan since December. He said he heard “constant sounds” of explosions overnight and into Tuesday, with fighter jets and drones flying overhead.

He said it reminded him of the Israeli invasion of his Shijaiyah neighborhood in Gaza City, where Israel launched an intensive bombing campaign before sending in ground forces in late 2023. “We've seen this before,” did he declare.

The United States and other allies of Israel have warned of a full-scale offensive in the city, with the Biden administration saying it would cross a “red line” and refusal to supply offensive weapons for such an enterprise. On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller gave no indication that the administration considers Israel to be crossing any of the red lines for Rafah, saying the offensive is still a “very different” scale from attacks on other population centers in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its offensive on Rafah last week, as part of South Africa's lawsuit accusing Israel of commit genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

A new UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending the fighting in Rafah was drafted by Algeria on Tuesday, with the intention of potentially putting it to a vote this week. The United States has vetoed several ceasefire resolutions in Gaza.

An Israeli drone strike hit tents near a field hospital on the Mediterranean coast west of Rafah on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 21 people, including 13 women, the Health Ministry said. Gaza.

A witness, Ahmed Nassar, said his four cousins ​​and some of their husbands and children were killed in the attack and a number of tents were destroyed or damaged. Most of those living there had fled the same area of ​​Gaza City at the start of the war.

“They have nothing to do with anything,” he said.

Netanyahu pledged to continue his efforts in Rafah, saying Israeli forces must enter the city to dismantle Hamas and return captured hostages. the attack of October 7 who started the war.

In its investigation into Sunday's deadly strike and fire, the Israeli military released satellite photos of what it says is a Hamas rocket launch position about 40 meters from a hangar area that been targeted. In the photo, the alleged thrower himself does not appear to have been hit.

He said Israeli warplanes used the smallest bombs possible – two munitions with 17-kilogram (37-pound) warheads. “Our munitions alone could not have started a fire of this magnitude,” he said.

Hagari said the fire was “a devastating incident that we did not expect” and started due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

Still, the strikes triggered a flight of people from areas west of Rafah. Rafah resident Sayed al-Masri said many families were heading to the crowded Muwasi neighborhood or to the southern city of Khan Younis. who suffered heavy damage during months of fighting.

“The situation is getting worse” in Rafah, al-Masri said.

The Gaza Health Ministry said two medical facilities in Tel al-Sultan were out of service due to intense shelling nearby. Medical Aid for Palestinians, a charity operating across the territory, said the Tel al-Sultan medical center and Indonesian field hospital were on lockdown with doctors, patients and displaced people trapped inside.

Most residents of Gaza hospitals no longer work. Kuwait's Rafah hospital closed Monday after a strike near its entrance killed two health workers.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said victims of Sunday's strikes and fires had “completely overwhelmed” the region's field hospitals, which were already short of supplies to treat serious burns.

“It requires intensive care, it requires electricity, it requires high-level medical services,” Dr. Margaret Harris told reporters in Geneva. “More and more, we are having trouble getting highly qualified doctors and nurses because they have been displaced. »

The war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, killing some 1,200 civilians and kidnapping about 250. More than 100 were freed during of a one-week ceasefire in November in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. .

Israel responded to the attack with a massive air, land and sea offensive that killed at least 36,096 Palestinians, according to Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. About 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced, according to U.N. officials. certain parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

The fighting in Rafah has made it almost impossible for humanitarian groups to import and distribute aid to southern Gaza.

The Israeli military says it has allowed hundreds of trucks to enter through the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing since its operation began, but humanitarian groups say it is extremely difficult to access this aid from the Gaza side due to fights.

The UN says it has only been able to collect aid from around 170 trucks over the past three weeks through Kerem Shalom. Smaller amounts of aid enter through two passages to the north and by sea via a floating pier built in the United Statesbut we are far from the 600 trucks per day that humanitarian groups estimate are necessary.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the war at