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Israeli tanks in the heart of Rafah as 21 reported killed in latest strikes - BBC News | |
(32 minutes later) | |
Hugo Bachega | |
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem | |
Amid global outrage over an | |
attack that resulted in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, the Israeli | |
military has said it is investigating the possibility that weapons stored | |
in a facility near the location hit might have exploded after an airstrike in | |
Rafah on Sunday, triggering a blaze in a tent camp for displaced residents. | |
The bombing, which resulted in | |
the massive fire in the camp in the Tel Al-Sultan district, led to widespread | |
international condemnation and renewed criticism | |
of the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza, with | |
world leaders and humanitarian groups calling for an immediate ceasefire in | |
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. | |
Speaking at a | |
briefing today, Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), | |
said the explosives used in the attack – 17-kg munition, which he described as | |
the “smallest our jets can use” – could not have sparked a fire of that | |
scale. | |
“Weapons stored in a compound | |
next to our target, which we didn’t know of, may have ignited the fire,” he | |
said, providing no evidence, adding that the investigation continued. | |
Hagari said the attack hit a | |
structure where two senior Hamas commanders were meeting, and that | |
pictures posted on social media in the aftermath appear to show secondary explosions, which could have been | |
caused by the weapons allegedly stored nearby. | |
The target, he said, was 1.7km | |
from the area that had been designated as a humanitarian zone by the Israeli | |
military, and 180m from the tents. At least 45 people were killed in the | |
attack, including many women, children and the elderly, according to Gaza | |
health authorities. | |
The update is unlikely to change | |
the view of those who are critical of Israel’s tactics in Gaza, who say the | |
military assumes the risk of killing large numbers of civilians when carrying | |
out airstrikes knowing how densely populated the territory is. | |
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