Dozens of people have been killed after Israeli aircraft struck an UNRWA camp housing internally displaced persons (IDPs) north west of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
The attack, which according to Palestinian news agency WAFA, has killed at least 40 people, with others also injured as a result.
The armed wing of Hamas said on Sunday it had launched a “large rocket barrage” at Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a post on Telegram that they had targeted Tel Aviv “with a large rocket barrage in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians”.
It came after the Palestinian group said its fighters had captured Israeli soldiers during fighting in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Saturday, though the Israeli military denied the claim.
The Hamas armed wing spokesman did not say how many soldiers had been abducted, and showed no proof of the claim.
“Our fighters lured a Zionist force into an ambush inside a tunnel … The fighters withdrew after they left all members of the force dead, wounded, and captured,” Abu Obaida, the spokesman for Al Qassam Brigades, said in a recorded message broadcast by Al Jazeera early on Sunday.
The Israeli military on Sunday denied the claim by Hamas’ armed wing.
“The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) clarifies that there is no incident in which a soldier was abducted,” the military said in a statement.