The Israeli military says an initial investigation into a strike that sparked a deadly weekend fire in a tent camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has found the blaze was caused by a secondary explosion.
Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, said on Tuesday that the army fired two 17-kg munitions that targeted two senior Hamas militants. He said the munitions would have been too small to ignite a fire on their own and it is looking into the possibility that weapons were stored in the area.
Palestinian health officials say at least 45 people, around half of them women and children, were killed in Sunday’s strike. The fire also could have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the camp housing displaced people.
The strike caused widespread outrage, including from some of Israel’s closest allies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was the result of a “tragic mishap”.
New strikes in the same western Tel al-Sultan district of Rafah that was hit on Sunday killed at least 16 Palestinians, the Palestinian Civil Defence and the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Tuesday.
