Rafah, Palestinian Territories – Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli strike killed at least 21 people at a displacement camp west of the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday, days after a similar strike that sparked global outrage.
Mohammad al-Mughayyir, a senior official at the agency, said 21 people had been killed in an “occupation strike targeting the tents of displaced people west of Rafah”.
Palestinian fighter group Hamas also said an Israeli strike had caused “dozens of martyrs and wounded” in the area.
When asked for comment about the incident, Israel’s army requested coordinates of the strike.
An Israeli strike on Sunday set ablaze a crowded camp in Rafah, killing 45 people, according to Palestinian officials, and sparking global outrage.
Israel launched its controversial assault on Rafah earlier this month, dismissing concerns for the safety of the 1.4 million Palestinian civilians then sheltering in the city.
Around one million civilians have since fled the city, the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) reported Tuesday.
Israeli forces also seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Fighters also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,096 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.