Jerusalem, May 27 (EFE).- At least 50 Gazans died Monday morning in an Israeli bombardment on a displaced persons camp in the northwest of Rafah, in the Tal al Sultan neighborhood, an attack confirmed by the Israeli army and directed against two senior Hamas officials.
“Another atrocious massacre was committed by Israeli forces in Rafah, which has so far claimed the lives of 50 martyrs and dozens of wounded, most of them children and women,” said a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas.
The Israeli Army confirmed the attack by its aircraft in the Tal al Sultan area, “based on precise intelligence” and directed against two senior officials of the Islamist group Hamas. They are West Bank Division Cmdr. Yassin Rabia and Sr. Cmdr. Khaled Nagar.
“The Hamas wing in Judea and Samaria (occupied West Bank) is responsible for the planning, financing and execution of terrorist attacks throughout Judea and Samaria and within Israel,” said a military statement about that attack in Tal al Sultan.
This is a neighborhood of Rafah, which Israeli forces had not yet ordered to evacuate and which was hosting hundreds of displaced people.
Images spread on Palestinian social media show a large fire caused by aerial bombardment on temporary tents in Tal al Sultan.
“We are aware of reports indicating that, as a result of the attack and the fire that started, several civilians in the area were injured. The incident is under review,” the army said about the attack.
According to Israel, Rabia “managed the entirety of Hamas’ terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria, transferred funds to terrorist targets and planned terrorist attacks,” also in the past, including in 2001 and 2002 – at the height of the Second Intifada – “in which soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces died.”
They said Nagar “directed shooting attacks and other terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria, and transferred funds intended for Hamas’ terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip” and that in the past, he carried out several deadly attacks between 2001 and 2003. They caused the death of several Israeli civilians and soldiers.
“Never before in history have such a large number of tools of mass killing been used in front of the world as is happening now in Gaza, where the population is deprived of water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel, crushing infrastructure and destroying all institutions,” the Gaza health ministry said.
According to his data, in the last 24 hours, 190 Palestinians died in new massacres, including this one in the supposed “safe zone” of the camps west of the city of Rafah, it added.
The Israeli attack on Rafah comes hours after Hamas launched from that point in the Strip, according to the Army, eight rockets toward central Israel, including Tel Aviv, for the first time in about four months, which did not cause serious damages or injuries.
Palestinian National Authority Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said he condemned this “deliberate attack by the occupation army” on tents of displaced people in Rafah, causing a “massacre that has exceeded all limits and requires urgent intervention to immediately stop these crimes against the Palestinian people.”
In the West Bank, hundreds of Palestinians have taken to the streets in various cities, including hot spots such as Jenin and Tulkarm, to protest the attack. EFE
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