40 killed in Israeli bombing on camp in Gaza’s Rafah
Hamas chief of staff killed in Rafah by Israeli airstrike
Gaza/Jerusalem, May 27 (UNI): At least 40 people were killed and some others injured on Sunday evening in Israel’s bombing of tents in northwestern Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.
Israeli forces fired about eight rockets toward the tents in a newly established camp crowded with thousands of displaced people near the warehouses of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), WAFA added.
Local sources told Xinhua that it was a “severe and unprecedented” Israeli airstrike on the densely populated area of displaced families, igniting tents made of plastic and tin, as well as civilian vehicles.
Video clips circulated on Facebook showed flames rising intensively in the area and fires engulfing tents still inhabited by many, including children and women.
The sources mentioned that the Civil Defense and ambulance crews face significant obstacles in retrieving the bodies due to the difficult terrain.
Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that crowded with Gazans, the area had been classified by the Israeli military as a “safe area” before the strike.
In a statement released Sunday night, Hamas slammed the bombing as “complete defiance and disregard for the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that demanded it to stop its aggression against Rafah.”
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Monday that an Israeli aircraft killed Yassin Rabia, the Hamas Chief of Staff in the West Bank, Sunday evening in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
The strike was carried out in the area of Tal as Sultan in northwest Rafah, based on precise intelligence, said an IDF statement, noting that Rabia “managed the entirety” of Hamas’ activity in the West Bank, transferred funds to targets and planned Hamas attacks throughout the West Bank.
Rabia had carried out “numerous murderous attacks,” including those in 2001 and 2002, in which Israeli soldiers were killed, it said.
