Israel widely condemned, including by allies, for airstrike killing 45 at Rafah tent camp

An Israeli airstrike triggered a massive blaze killing 45 people in a tent camp in the Gaza city of Rafah, officials said on Monday, prompting an outcry from global leaders who urged the implementation of an International Court of Justice ruling to halt Israel's assault.

In scenes grimly familiar from a war in its eighth month, Palestinian families rushed to hospitals to prepare their dead for burial after the strike late on Sunday night set tents and rickety shelters ablaze.

Women wept and men held prayers beside bodies in shrouds.

"The whole world is witnessing Rafah getting burnt up by Israel and no one is doing anything to stop it," Bassam, a Rafah resident, said via a chat app, of the strike in an area of western Rafah that had been designated a safe zone.

Israeli tanks continued to bombard eastern and central areas of the city in southern Gaza on Monday, killing eight, local health officials said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was "outraged" over Israel's latest attacks.

"These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians," he said on X.

Italy offered one of its strongest criticisms against the military campaign in Gaza.

"There is an increasingly difficult situation, in which the Palestinian people are being squeezed without regard for the rights of innocent men, women and children who have nothing to do with Hamas, and this can no longer be justified," Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told SkyTG24 TV.

"We are watching the situation with despair."

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on Friday must be respected.

"International humanitarian law applies for all, also for Israel's conduct of the war," Baerbock said.

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's health ministry says, though its totals do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.