WARNING: Graphic content
Australia has decried Israel’s attack on Gaza’s last refuge as “horrific” and “unacceptable”.
Israel has launched a bombing campaign on Rafah in the territory’s south after directing more than one million Palestinians to travel to the area.
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On Monday, one of its airstrikes ignited a massive blaze at a tent camp in the Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood, where thousands were sheltering after Israeli forces began their offensive in the east of the city more than two weeks ago.
At least 45 people were killed and more than 200 injured, most of them women and children.
No hospital in Rafah had the capacity to take the number of casualties, Gaza’s health ministry said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday an airstrike was a “tragic mistake”.
“Despite our best effort not to harm those not involved, unfortunately a tragic mistake happened last night. We are investigating the case,” Netanyahu said in a speech at the Israeli Knesset.
Footage showed the camp in flames, with scores of men, women and children frantically trying to find cover from the nighttime assault.
Burned bodies, including those of children, could be seen being pulled by rescuers from the wreckage.
“Several civilians are still trapped inside the camp, which was attacked without warning,” a Palestinian man filming the fire said.
“This was declared a safe zone.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has condemned Israel’s actions.
“Israel’s strikes have had horrific and unacceptable consequences,” she said in a social media post on Tuesday.
“Events of the last 24 hours underscore that we must see a humanitarian ceasefire now so that civilians can be protected.
“Australia has been very clear that Israel must not proceed with its operation in Rafah.”
She also reiterated calls for terrorist group Hamas to “stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields and lay down its arms”.
It was among the deadliest strikes by the Israeli military on Gaza’s southernmost city since Israel began its operation there on May 7.
It also came just days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ top court, ordered Israel to “immediately halt” its military operation in Rafah, and any other action in the city, “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
The IDF said the attack was conducted based on “prior intelligence” indicating that senior officials of Hamas’ West Bank wing were present at the site.
The IDF said it had assessed there would be “no expected harm to uninvolved civilians”.
Footage of the aftermath shared on social media showed chaotic scenes.
In one video, the lifeless body of a man was seen being dragged by the legs out of the flames.
In another video, a man wept as he held up the headless body of a toddler for the camera.
Women shrieked in grief as children peered into the fire.
A man with a bloodied face stood in apparent shock, examining his wounds with one hand, as he held an infant with blood-stained clothes in the other arm. One of the bodies pulled out of the fire was charred-stiff.
International condemnation was swift, with UN agencies, aid groups and governments calling on Israel to respect the ICJ ruling and halt its Rafah operation.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday condemned the airstrike. “There is no safe place in Gaza. This horror must stop,” he said in a post on X.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged” and called for an “immediate ceasefire.”
More than 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military operation there, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave, which started after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
-With AAP and CNN