At least 45 killed in Israeli airstrike on displaced persons camp in Rafah, health ministry says, hours after Hamas fired rockets into Israel

 At least 45 killed in Israeli airstrike on displaced persons camp in Rafah, health ministry says, hours after Hamas fired rockets into Israel

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry raised the death toll to 45 Monday from Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, AFP and Reuters reported. Gaza officials said the strike hit tents for displaced people in Rafah, with "numerous" others trapped in flaming debris. ( )

The airstrike came hours after Hamas claimed it fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza toward central Israel as rocket sirens rang for the first time in months in cities like Tel Aviv.The Israeli attack drew swift condemnation from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, France and Qatar which warned it could "hinder" budding steps to revive stalled truce and hostage release talks in the Israel-Hamas war raging since

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Gaza's Ministry of Health said in an earlier statement that, "Never before in history has such a large number of mass killing tools been amassed and employed together in front of the world as is happening now in Gaza," noting severe shortages of water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel. ( )

Eyewitnesses told CBS News' team in Gaza that eight airstrikes hit tents in western Rafah, though the reports could not be independently confirmed. The eyewitnesses said the casualties, which included civilians, were rushed to Emirati Hospital. The tents were part of a camp about 200 meters (about 650 feet) away from the largest United Nations warehouse in the Gaza Strip. ( )

The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged the strike in a statement Sunday night. 

"A short while ago, an IDF aircraft struck a Hamas compound in Rafah in which significant Hamas terrorists were operating," the IDF said. "The strike was carried out against legitimate targets under international law, using through the use of precise munitions and on the basis of precise intelligence that indicated Hamas' use of the area. The IDF is aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review."( )

Footage from the scene showed heavy destruction, and a spokesperson with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the death toll was likely to increase as search and rescue efforts continued in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood west of the city center.( )

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