Israeli shelling and airstrikes killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents outside the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight and on Tuesday, in the same area where strikes triggered a deadly fire days earlier in a camp for displaced Palestinians, according to witnesses, emergency workers, and hospital officials.
The tent camp inferno has drawn widespread international outrage, including from some of Israel’s closest allies, over the military’s expanding offensive into Rafah. And as a sign of Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage, Spain, Norway, and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday. The Israeli military suspect says Sunday’s blaze in the tent camp may have been caused by secondary explosions, possibly from Palestinian militants’ weapons.
The results of Israel’s initial probe into the fire were issued Tuesday, with military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari saying the cause of the fire was still under investigation but that the Israeli munitions used—targeting what the army said was a position with two senior Hamas militants—were too small to be the source. The strike or the subsequent fire could also have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters, or other materials in the camp.
The blaze killed 45 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials’ count. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a “tragic mishap.” Israel’s assault on Rafah, launched on May 6, spurred more than 1 million people to flee the city, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees said Tuesday. Most were already displaced multiple times in the nearly eight-month war between Israel and Hamas. Families are now scattered across makeshift tent camps and other war-ravaged areas.