Israeli attacks kill 45 Palestinians and damage Red Cross office in Gaza

At least 45 Palestinians were killed and a Red Cross branch in Gaza was damaged as Israeli forces bombed the besieged area and engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with Hamas, Reuters reported.

The Red Cross said its office in Gaza was damaged when “heavy-caliber projectiles” fired by the Israeli military struck Mawasi, near Rafah, on Friday afternoon, killing at least 25 people living in tents around the compound and wounding 50.

The Israeli shelling hit two locations in the area, which is full of tents housing Palestinians displaced from their homes in other parts of Gaza by the relentless shelling. One of these locations is near a Red Cross field hospital.

Relatives of those killed near the hospital told the Associated Press that the Israelis lured the people out with a “sound bomb” and then hit them with a fatal volley.

Mona Ashour’s husband rushed out to investigate and was killed instantly. “Then they struck with the second one, which was a little closer to the Red Cross entrance,” she said.

Another eyewitness, Hasan al-Najjar, told the news agency that his sons were killed while helping people who panicked after the first attack.

“My two sons left after hearing the screams of the women and children,” he said at the hospital. “They went to save the women and hit the second bullet and my sons were martyred. They hit the place twice.”

The locations of the attacks indicated by the Red Cross appear to be just outside a “security zone” designated by the Israelis in Muwasi.

“This serious security incident is one of several in recent days. Previously, stray bullets had reached the ICRC’s structures,” the humanitarian organization said in a post on X on Friday, without mentioning Israel. “We condemn these incidents, which endanger the lives of humanitarian workers and civilians.”

The 60-bed Red Cross field hospital opened in mid-May to provide emergency surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics and outpatient care, according to a press release at the time, with white tents covering a vast area.

Two Israeli tanks climbed a hilltop above Mawasi and sent down “fireballs that hit the tents of the poor people displaced from the area,” a local resident told Reuters.

Israeli forces had previously bombed locations near the “humanitarian zone” in Muwasi.

Despite repeated condemnations by Tel Aviv’s Western allies and the UN, they pushed for the complete capture of Rafah.

The Israeli military said the incident was being investigated. “An initial investigation indicates that there is no evidence that the Israeli forces carried out an attack in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,” it said.

The military had previously said its forces were conducting “precise, intelligence-based” operations in the Rafah area and had been involved in close combat with Hamas.

Israeli air strikes killed three Palestinians in Khan Younis and at least seven in Beach Camp on Friday. Five Palestinians were also killed in an attack on Gaza City.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, the war on Gaza has so far killed more than 37,400 people and left almost the entire population of 2.3 million homeless and destitute.

The UN said on Friday that amid warnings of impending famine in Gaza, it was Israel’s responsibility as an occupying power to restore public order and security so that humanitarian aid could be delivered.

Israel launched a ground and air campaign on Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing around 1,200 soldiers and civilians and taking nearly 250 hostage.