Gaza - At least 24 people have been killed in an attack on a tent encampment near the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday.

The ministry said that 47 other Palestinians were injured, blaming Israeli forces for the attack.

The attack hit al-Mawasi near Rafah. Many people had fled there after the Israeli military began its offensive in Rafah at the beginning of May.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli tank shells had hit the area.

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The Israeli military said that its initial investigations indicated that the attack in al-Mawasi was not carried out by Israeli troops.

Like other developments from inside Gaza, the information could not be independently verified.

Earlier on Friday, about 20 Palestinians were killed during ongoing Israeli army operations against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, according to reports from Palestinian medical sources.

The Israeli military said that its operations would continue in the center and south of the sealed-off coastal area, where humanitarian conditions are said to be critical by UN agencies and international NGOs.

At least 37,431 have been killed and 85,653 injured in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the territory's health ministry.