War on Gaza: Massive Israeli strike on Palestinian tents kills at least 40

Israeli air strikes on a so-called "humanitarian zone" in southern Gaza's al-Mawasi killed at least 40 people on Tuesday, local health authorities said.

The strikes targeted at least 20 tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal area near the city of Khan Younis.

Eyewitnesses told AFP that at least five rockets fell in the area, with emergency services saying the strikes created craters up to nine metres deep.

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

The military alleged that the strike targeted Hamas leaders, including Samer Ismail Hader Abudaqa, whom they identified as the head of the Palestinian movement's aerial unit; Osama Tabash, who it called the head of surveillance and targets in Hamas’s intelligence division; and Ayman Mabhouh, another senior official.

It did not share evidence to back up any of its claims.

Hamas denied the allegations, saying "the claims of the fascist occupation army about the presence of resistance elements at the targeted site are a blatant lie".

Gaza's civil defence search-and-rescue organisation said that the Israeli army used "heavy concussion missiles" and estimated that it was "one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza".

'This does not make sense'

Um Mahmoud, a displaced Palestinian in al-Mawasi, described seeing women and children "torn to shreds" after the strikes.

"We have been here for nine months, we have not seen a single resistance member entering the area," Mahmoud told Middle East Eye.

Alaa al-Shaer, who has been staying in the displacement camp with his family, said he had a message to Israelis "conducting a genocide against us".

"I have my sister, my sons, my daughters. Would I logically put between them someone wanted by the Israelis? This does not make sense."

"The Israelis said, 'go to the safe areas' and that is what people did," he added.

Footage from the direct aftermath showed Palestinians desperately digging for their loved ones in the deep craters, with the civil defence saying "entire families" had "disappeared" in the sand.

As the sun rose, more people headed to the area to try to support rescue efforts. Others were looking through the remains of their tents, in apparent attempts to salvage anything from them.

Those trying to leave struggled to work their way through the giant craters left in the ground.

Tearfully standing outside Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital, a woman mourned her sister, who was killed in the attack.

"My sister was martyred, she was 35 years old," she told Middle East Eye. "Her husband disappeared when the Israelis took him six months ago."

The woman, who was just a street away from her sister's tent, says she is survived by six daughters and two sons.

"How can you see a girl get orphaned? No mother, no father, no grandparents, no one," she said.

Nearly all of Gaza's population of 2.1 million have been repeatedly displaced due to ongoing Israeli attacks, with many of them forced to flee to what Israel describes as a "humanitarian zone" in the southern part of the enclave.

Israel repeatedly reduces the area designated as a humanitarian zone, claiming some places in it were used by Hamas, forcing Palestinians to move to an ever-shrinking area that has also been bombed by Israel in the past.

With their bare hands and simple, rudimentary tools, citizens continue to search for the remains of their martyred children after Israeli warplanes targeted the displaced persons’ camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/BmaVqna9l0

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) September 10, 2024

Human rights groups and UN experts have accused Israel of collective punishment against Palestinians since the Hamas-led attack on 7 October, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war.

Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in the enclave, the majority of whom are women and children.