Rafah residents reported seeing armed Israeli tanks entering their city overnight on Wednesday, as Israel's attack continues despite international criticism.
"These vehicles advanced in the middle of the night," resident Salma Al Kadoomi told CNN, adding that she saw the tanks downtown near the Abu Hashem building. Another local - Alaa Abu Ibrahim - reported that there were tanks seen in the Al Awda roundabout, near the city center.
These sightings of armored vehicles come in the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitting that the Israel Defense Forces killed 45 Palestinian refugees, in an incident that he described as a "tragic mistake."
The fatal airstrike on the besieged city has been condemned by the international community. The United Nations described the aftermath as "horrifying;" Italian officials said that Israel's actions in Gaza are "no longer justifiable;" French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "outrage;" Britain's foreign secretary, David Cameron, called for an investigation into the "deeply distressing" massacre; Ireland's foreign minister called the incident "barbaric" and multiple Arab states described Israel's actions as "war crimes."
Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said that the Israel Defense Forces "called on citizens and displaced persons to go to these safe zones," which were then attacked by missiles.
The IDF disputed these claims, claiming they "carried out an intelligence-based precise strike that targeted senior Hamas terrorists in Tal as Sultan."
The International Criminal Court - which recently issued a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest - ordered Israel to halt any actions "which may inflict upon the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that would bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." The Gazan city is just 25 square miles but houses more than a million Palestinians, many of whom are internally displaced within the besieged Gaza Strip.
For months the United States has warned Israel that entering Rafah would be a "mistake" - especially without a concrete plan to mitigate civilian harm. Prior to the recent invasion, American officials have suggested that they would withhold military aid if Israel attacked the city.
Israel maintains that its actions inside Gaza are necessary to defeat the militant group Hamas and recover the remaining hostages, who were taken during the October 7 attacks.
"We have a national and moral duty to do everything we can to return our abducted," Netanyahu said.
