UPDATE - At least 30 killed as Israel targets camp for displaced in Rafah: Gaza Media Office

ADDS MEDIA OFFICE’S STATEMENT, CHANGES DECK

By Rania Abu Shamala

ISTANBUL (AA) - At least 30 people were killed and dozens injured as Israel targeted a camp for displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, medical sources and officials said.

The attack occurred near the logistics base of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan, said the Gaza Media Office.

Israeli aircraft targeted several tents in the area, the media office said, adding that missiles and 2,000-pound bombs were used.

Earlier, Gaza’s civil defense force said it transported 50 people, including dead and injured, after the bombing. The targeted area sheltered at least 100,000 displaced people, it said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent in a brief statement said its ambulance crews were moving the victims to nearby medical centers.

The attack led to fires engulfing the area, which are still raging, according to witnesses.

“We retrieved a large number of child martyrs from the Israeli bombardment, including a child without a head and children whose bodies have turned into fragments,” a Palestinian paramedic told Anadolu.

“The Rafah massacre is a clear message from Israel to the ICJ and the international community that attacks against civilians in Gaza continue,” said the media office in its statement.

The office further noted that “at least 190 Palestinians were killed and injured in the last 24 hours due to the Israeli army’s targeting of more than 10 shelters for displaced people in the Gaza Strip.”

The army had previously identified the camp it bombed in Rafah as being "within the safe zones where displaced people were urged to head."

Israel has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which killed around 1,200 people.

The military campaign has turned much of the enclave of 2.3 million people into ruins, leaving most civilians homeless and at risk of famine.

The attack comes despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.