Al-Mawasi attack: ‘People were torn into pieces, most of them women and children’

Editor’s note: Details and images in this story from the Gaza Strip contain highly distressing and sensitive material.

For three hours under the darkness of Gaza’s night sky, search-and-rescue teams dug bodies and survivors out of piles of sand. Eventually, they paused, exhausted, to wait for daybreak and see what else was left.

The teams arrived minutes after Israeli aircraft pounded the area, a place in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi that Israel had designated a “humanitarian zone”.

Around midnight on Tuesday, bombs dropped on tents housing displaced Palestinians, gouging vast craters into the earth and killing 40 people, according to local authorities.

Eyewitnesses told Middle East Eye that the explosions felt like an “earthquake that rocked the area”. When they stepped outside, they found victims “with amputated limbs” lying on the ground.

"It was around 12.30am or 1am, I was sleeping in the pergola outside my house when suddenly, I saw missiles falling and sand raining down on us. They bombed the area with about four or five missiles," Alaa Shahda Mahmoud al-Shaer, an elderly resident of al-Mawasi, told MEE.

'Just a while ago, they pulled out a head, a hand and a leg. People are still buried, and their families are searching for them' 

- Umm Mahmoud, displaced Palestinian

Shaer’s sisters, in-laws and daughters were all staying with him. The Israeli army told Palestinians to move to these so-called “safe” areas, he noted, “so everyone came here. We were shocked by what they did.”

Shaer joined the dozens of residents and displaced who began removing the piles of sand and rescuing those buried alive before the civil defence search-and-rescue teams arrived.

“Only God knows how we saved people. We removed the sand and tents off them with our bare hands. It was a struggle to pull out the victims. We tried to rescue the women and children but the sand had covered the tents and people,” he said.

“Some tents, we couldn’t even find them - they were completely buried. The civil defence tried to retrieve them during the night but couldn’t, and we are still waiting for them to be recovered.”

According to Gaza’s civil defence, at least 40 people were killed and 60 others wounded in the attack, which struck without any prior evacuation orders.

“I didn’t see the martyrs, but the young men said there was a woman with her head cut off, children and members of the al-Shaer and Foujo families killed. Everyone who died were ordinary people. We never heard that any of them worked with the resistance before,” Shaer said.

The Israeli army said it targeted a Hamas command centre "disguised in the humanitarian area in Khan Younis”, adding that "many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weaponry, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information".

It did not share evidence to back up any of its claims and Hamas denied the allegations. 

Speaking alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the strike “shocking” and said it demonstrated the need for an immediate ceasefire.

‘Like an earthquake’

Aisha Nayef al-Shaer, an elderly woman living in al-Mawasi, described seeing amputated limbs being pulled from beneath the sand.

"We were asleep when the bombing suddenly started. We began to run and found people lying on the ground. Some had their legs severed, others had their heads cut off, and people were carrying them,” she told MEE.

“There are still people missing under the sand. Just a while ago, they pulled out a head, a hand and a leg. People are still buried, and their families are searching for them. They were asleep and they bombed them with aircraft. The area is overcrowded with people and tents.”

Witnesses said at least 20 makeshift tents housing families were targeted. They had pitched on the sandy, coastal area near the city of Khan Younis, a place with little infrastructure to support them.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have taken shelter in al-Mawasi after Israel ordered them to leave northern and eastern Gaza soon after the war broke out in October.

Since Israel began military operations in the southern city of Rafah in May, the number of displaced in al-Mawasi has doubled, a situation exacerbated by offensives waged in Khan Younis and parts of central Gaza. 

'I’ve been here for nine months and haven’t seen any fighters in this area. Everyone here are women, children, the elderly and ordinary people'

- Umm Mahmoud, displaced Palestinian, al-Mawasi

Al-Mawasi witnessed a similar attack on 13 July, when Israeli air strikes on displaced Palestinians killed at least 88 and wounded 289 others, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Umm Mahmoud, a displaced Palestinian who has been taking shelter in Mawasi for nine months, called the attack “horrific”.

“We heard about five explosions that felt like an earthquake in the area. It was dark, we were all sleeping, and the children came out crying. The people were torn into pieces, most of them women and children,” she told MEE.

“We felt safe here, and there were no resistance fighters among us. I’ve been here for nine months and haven’t seen any fighters in this area. Everyone here are women, children, the elderly and ordinary people."