Palestinians searching through charred remains described a “horrifying” scene of people running to escape the blaze that swept through a tent camp in Rafah, as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the southern Gaza city Tuesday despite mounting global condemnation.

Israeli tanks reached the city center for the first time, according to NBC News' crew on the ground, defying international pressure to halt an offensive that has sent nearly 1 million people fleeing Rafah and left those still sheltering there facing dire conditions and deadly attacks.

Palestinians who survived Sunday's strike — which local officials said killed at least 45 people in an area where displaced civilians were sheltering in tents — described a desperate bid to escape the blaze, while others sought to identify their loved ones among the remains.

"All the people fled from the tents running. The sound was horrifying and deafening," one woman said as people around her, including young children, searched through what was left behind of the scorched tent camp in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood.

"This place is full of innocent people and children," she said. "And they are martyred."

"My cousins and the entire family were wiped off the civil record," said one man who identified himself as Mahmoud Diab Mouhamed Talal Elataar. "No one is left."

Elataar, 20, said he raced to the site after hearing about Sunday's airstrike in a bid to ensure his loved ones were OK, but "no one is alive." On Monday, all he could do was search through the remains of those killed in the hope of being able to identify his family members.

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In a briefing Tuesday, the IDF spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel was still investigating the incident, including what caused the fire that “resulted in this tragic loss of life.”

Hagari said the IDF had fired two 17-kilogram (37.5-pound) munitions targeting two senior Hamas militants. Sharing video purporting the show the target, he said that no tent shelters were within the immediate vicinity and that intelligence had suggested no women and children were in the compound.

He said the Israeli military's munitions alone “would not have ignited a fire of this scale" and suggested the possibility that weapons stored in the area the IDF was targeting might have ignited the fire. But he said that was an “assumption" at this point.

Hagari maintained that the blaze was “unexpected and unintended," echoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Monday description of the "tragic incident."

Earlier, an Israeli official told NBC News that preliminary information indicated the airstrike most likely ignited a fuel tank, causing an explosion and a fire that spread through the camp where displaced civilians were sheltering in tents, killing dozens of people, including children.

A U.S. official said that Israel told the U.S. that it used a precision munition to hit its target but that shrapnel or something else from the explosion ignited a fuel tank nearby, which started a fire, engulfing a tent and leading to many casualties.

The official added that the U.S. cannot confirm that information directly but said that “it’s what Israel shared with us — and we assume we will learn more once Israel completes its investigation.”

The Sunday strike came hours after Hamas’ military wing announced a missile barrage targeting Tel Aviv for the first time in many weeks, with the IDF saying eight projectiles were identified crossing from the Rafah area into Israeli territory.

The attack has left Israel — and its chief ally, the U.S. — increasingly isolated on the world stage.

On Tuesday the United Nations Security Council was set to convene an emergency meeting, while a trio of European countries formally recognized an independent Palestinian state. Last week the U.N.'s top court ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, citing the "immediate risk" to Palestinians.

A National Security Council spokesperson said Monday the images from the strike were heartbreaking, warning Israel of its responsibility to protect civilians in a war in which more than 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza so far, according to local health officials.

Israel launched its offensive following Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks, in which, Israeli officials said, about 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage in a major escalation of the decadeslong conflict.

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Images showed the area of the strike engulfed in flames as Palestinians ran for safety and sought to help the injured. Some of the video shared on social media showed extremely disturbing images, including burned corpses and a man holding what appeared to be the headless body of a small child.

“Israel has a right to go after Hamas, and we understand this strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians," the NSC spokesperson said. "But as we’ve been clear, Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians." The spokesperson said the U.S. was in talks with the IDF to determine what happened.

President Joe Biden has previously threatened that the U.S. would suspend the shipment of certain arms if Israel launched a full-scale assault on Rafah, crossing Washington's stated red line.

In the wake of the deadly strike, some Palestinians who had continued to seek shelter in Rafah began to flee the area in hope of finding safety farther north in Gaza.

Abou Tarek Elkaferna said he and his family of 13 felt they were once again "back at square one" after having been displaced several times throughout Israel's offensive in Gaza.

Elkaferna said his family was among those to have fallen "under shelling" Sunday night. "It was terrifying for the children," he said.

After witnessing the horror of the strike, he said, his family decided to flee Rafah for Deir al-Balah, further north. But he said he did not believe his family would ever reach safety until the war is brought to an end.

"Here was a safe zone. But what happened?" Elkaferna said.

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