The Israeli The army has launched a devastating airstrike on Rafah, reportedly killing 50 people who were displaced and living in tents.
Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 22 people when it hit tents for displaced people in the south. Gaza city and 'numerous' others were trapped in the rubble.
The IDF said its plane was a 'Hamas compound' where 'key Hamas terrorists operated'.
Images from the scene showed heavy destruction and flames, but there were no immediate details about the target.
Hamas said the attack was fired at an area “full of hundreds of thousands of displaced people.”
And the Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 50 people were killed, continuing that “most” of them were women and children.
The strike came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered it Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population had sought shelter before Israel's recent invasion.
MAY 26: Fire rages after an Israeli attack on an area intended for displaced Palestinians
MAY 26: The Israeli army launched an airstrike on Rafah, reportedly killing 50 people
MAY 25: Smoke rises from the region following Israeli attacks on several areas in the city of Rafah
MAY 25: The Israeli army targeted a building in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, located in the western part of the city of Rafah
The Israeli military said it was not aware of anything happening in the area.
Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant was in Rafah today and was briefed on the “deepening of operations” there, his office said.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent said the death toll was likely to rise as search and rescue efforts continued in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, about 2 kilometers northwest of the city center.
The association claimed that the location had been designated by Israel as a “humanitarian area.”
The neighborhood is part of areas that the Israeli army evacuated earlier this month.
The airstrike was reported hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months, in a show of resilience more than seven months after the massive air, sea and ground offensive of Israel. .
There were no immediate reports of casualties in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January. Hamas' military wing claimed responsibility for the attack.
Palestinian militants have sporadically fired rockets and mortar shells at communities along the Gaza border, and the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said later on Sunday it had fired rockets at nearby communities.
The Israeli military said eight projectiles entered Israel after being launched from Rafah.
MAY 24: Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip
MAY 7: A man stands on the rubble after an Israeli airstrike in the city of Rafah
MAY 7: Smoke rises from shopping center after Israeli airstrike on eastern Rafah
It said “a number” of projectiles had been intercepted, and military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said the launch facility in Rafah had been destroyed.
Earlier on Sunday, aid trucks entered Gaza from southern Israel under a new deal to bypass the Rafah border crossing with Egypt after Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of it earlier this month.
But it was not immediately clear whether humanitarian groups could access the aid because of the fighting.
Egypt refuses to reopen its side of the Rafah crossing until control of the Gaza side is returned to the Palestinians.
It agreed to temporarily divert traffic through Israel's Kerem Shalom border crossing, Gaza's main cargo terminal, following a phone call between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
But the border crossing at Kerem Shalom is largely inaccessible due to the Israeli offensive in Rafah.
Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks in, but United Nations agencies say it is usually too dangerous to bring back the aid.
“As the humanitarian operation nears collapse, the Secretary-General emphasizes that Israeli authorities must facilitate the safe collection and delivery of humanitarian supplies from Egypt entering Kerem Shalom,” UN chief Antonio Guterres' spokesman said in a statement.
The war between Israel and Hamas has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which makes no distinction between civilians and combatants in its count.
MAY 22: A Palestinian man and his children sit in a destroyed room in a residential building
MAY 8: Smoke rises after Israeli airstrike on Rafah, Gaza
MAY 7: Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on buildings near the separation wall between Egypt and Rafah
The Health Ministry said the bodies of 81 people killed by Israeli strikes have been taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours.
Israel blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the militants operate in densely populated residential areas.
About 80 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, severe hunger is widespread and U.N. officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.
Hamas unleashed the war with its attack on Israel on October 7, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized some 250 hostages.
Hamas is still holding about 100 hostages and the remains of about 30 others after most of the rest were released during a ceasefire last year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel must take over Rafah to eliminate Hamas' remaining battalions and achieve a “total victory” over the militants, who have recently regrouped in other parts of Gaza where the army has operated.
The war has also increased tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Palestinian authorities said on Sunday that Israeli forces shot dead a 14-year-old boy near the southern West Bank town of Saeer.
The Israeli military said the Palestinian man was shot dead after he tried to stab Israeli troops at Beit Einun Junction.