The airstrike killed Yassin Rabia, who was responsible for funding and overseeing Hamas operations in the West Bank, and Khaled Nagar, a senior officer in Hamas’s West Bank wing, according to the Israeli military.
Reports and medics on the ground in Rafah reported widespread scenes of death and devastation, with the bodies of many victims charred and barely identifiable from blast impact.
Hisham Mhanna, of the International Red Cross in the occupied Palestinian territories, spoke of overwhelmed hospitals dealing with the injured.
“A deadly night in Rafah,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The ICRC field hospital has dealt with an influx of casualties with injuries and burns.”
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday that it had lost contact with its employees on the ground and could not immediately establish their location.
The EU foreign policy chief called on Israel to adhere to the International Court of Justice ruling that ordered it to stand down in Rafah.
The prime minister of Spain said he would urge his counterparts to pass a joint appeal on Israel to comply with the ruling.