Israeli forces bombed a Hamas facility in Rafah, Gaza, killing two Hamas officials and dozens of civilians.
The exact death toll is currently unknown, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that they struck a Hamas position in Rafah, where “a key Hamas terrorist operation was located.”
The Israel Defense Forces said it carried out the strikes “against legitimate targets under international law” based on intelligence indicating Hamas was using the area.
This still image is taken from a video on May 26, 2024, as a fire breaks out following an Israeli military attack on a Palestinian displaced settlement in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, as conflict continues between Israel and Hamas. (Image from Reuters/Reuters TV TPX Today)
An IDF source told Fox News Digital that the attack killed Yasin Rabiya, a commander in Hamas’ leadership in Judea and Samaria, and Khaled Nagar, a senior member of Hamas’ Judea and Samaria branch.
The Israel Defense Forces said the two suspects carried out numerous terror attacks that killed Israeli civilians and soldiers in the early 2000s.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed reports that the airstrike and subsequent fire “injured several civilians in the area,” and said the incident was “under investigation.”
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Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials and civil emergency services officials said the airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens more.
A Palestinian Red Crescent spokesman said the death toll was likely to rise as search and rescue operations continued in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah, more than a mile northwest of the city center.
The association claimed Israel had designated the site a “humanitarian area”, which is not among the areas the Israeli army ordered evacuated earlier this month.
Footage from the scene showed extensive destruction.
The airstrikes were reported hours after Hamas unleashed a barrage of rockets from Gaza, sending air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv.
Smoke rises from Israeli artillery fire in the eastern town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 19, 2024, as conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas continues. (AFP via Getty Images)
It was believed to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility for the attack. The Israeli military said eight projectiles fired from Rafah entered Israel, with “many” being intercepted and the launchers destroyed.
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According to the Gaza Health Ministry, about 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli-Hamas war, but the count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths because it operates in densely populated areas.
Around 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced and severe hunger is widespread, with UN officials saying famine is on the rise in parts of the strip.
Palestinian refugees fled the southern Gaza city of Rafah and arrived in central Gaza on Thursday, May 9. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Hamas sparked the war with its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Hamas is still holding about 100 hostages and about 30 bodies, even after most of the hostages were released in a ceasefire last year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel needed to capture Rafah, eliminate any remaining Hamas forces and achieve a “total victory” against the militants, who have recently regrouped in other parts of Gaza.
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Sunday’s attack came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its military attacks on the Rafah area, where more than half of Gaza’s residents fled before Israel’s invasion earlier this month. Tens of thousands remain in the area and many others have been displaced.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
