Fresh Israeli strikes on Rafah tents kill, injure dozens of Palestinians

Twenty-one Palestinians have been killed, at least twelve of them women, and dozens wounded in new Israeli strikes on an area of tents housing displaced people West of Rafah, Palestinian medical officials said.

The new Israeli strikes on Tuesday targeted tents of displaced families in the designated humanitarian area in Mawasi in western Rafah, according to medics and residents.

On Sunday, at least 45 people were killed and dozens injured as Israel targeted a camp for displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The attack on Sunday occurred near the logistics base of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan. An Israeli aircraft targeted several tents in the area, the media office said, adding that missiles and 2,000-pound bombs were used.

Tuesday's strikes come in the wake of Hamas calling on the UN Security Council to take "immediate" measures to halt Israel’s ongoing offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza.

In a statement, the Palestinian group urged the council "to fulfil its legal and moral responsibilities towards Israel’s disregard for the decision of the International Court of Justice."

'Massacres in the small city'

Last week, The Hague-based court ordered Israel to immediately halt its attacks in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

Hamas warned that the Israeli onslaught in Rafah "risks causing massacres in the small city, which is crowded with displaced people."

Israeli tanks reached the centre of Rafah on Tuesday amid its ground offensive on the city.

Israel's current expansion of its incursion into the city makes the Israeli army close to fully control the border area between Gaza and Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, a demilitarised buffer zone running along the Gaza-Egypt border.

The Israeli army has so far seized control of almost two-thirds of the corridor area as it advances under heavy bombardment and shelling.