The exchange of fire in the town between the Israeli army forces and Palestinian fighters broke out shortly after a United Nations-brokered 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire started on Friday. Witness said it was the largest attack on a whole town since the Israeli offensive was launched on the Palestinian enclave under siege on July 8.
Dead bodies were scattered across the roads while the wounded were screaming out of pain. However, ambulances were unable to reach the casualties promptly and the main hospital in the town was evacuated after targeted by tanks shells. Fleeing populations said situation in the town was disastrous.
Sobhi Radwan, mayor of Rafah, told Xinhua that what happened in the town was "a massacre and genocide against humans," adding that all the eastern parts of the town, which used to be the home by some 100,000 people, were totally evacuated.
The Israeli ground and air assault on the town was intensified following a fierce ground battle with militants, where Israel claimed two Israeli soldiers were killed and one was captured. Hamas officially denied that its fighters captured any soldier.
The residents who fled their home were in hysterical and panic status after the incident. They said they saw tanks shells poured on the whole town, including houses, roads, mosques, hospitals and clinics. "What's happening in Rafah is a real massacre," a witness told Xinhua.