Gaza Civil Defense announced that forty people were killed and sixty wounded in the humanitarian zone of Al-Mawasi, in Khan Yunis, on the night of Monday 9 to Tuesday 10 September, in an attack that Israel presents as directed against one “command center” from Hamas.
The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, Gaza civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair told Agence France-Presse. “Our teams are still working to find 15 people missing following the attack that targeted the tents of displaced people in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younes”a town in the southern Gaza Strip, he added.
The bombings left large craters in the humanitarian zone, said the Civil Defence, the organisation responsible for emergency services in the Gaza Strip. “Entire families disappeared in the Al-Mawasi massacre, under the sand, in deep holes”said another Civil Defense spokesman, Mahmoud Basal, in a statement. “More than twenty (…) The tents were completely damaged.He added, regretting the shortage of tools and equipment that hampers rescue operations.
Humanitarian zone
The Israeli army said it attacked the area after identifying the presence of Hamas cadres there, against whom it has been waging a merciless war since the Islamist organisation launched an unprecedented attack on its territory on 7 October.
An Israeli army plane. “hit key Hamas terrorists operating from a command and control center inside the humanitarian zone of Khan Yunis”the Israeli army specified. “Terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated humanitarian zone, to carry out terrorist activities against the State of Israel and IDF troops.”said in his press release.
Hamas denied there were any fighters in the humanitarian zone. “The accusations of occupation [Israël] “The claims about the presence of resistance fighters are a blatant lie”Hamas said in a statement on the Telegram messaging service.
Israel periodically accuses Hamas of using civilians as “human shields”what the group denies.
Al-Mawasi, in the city of Khan Yunis, had been designated a safe zone by the Israeli army at the start of the war; tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have found refuge there. However, the army continued to carry out regular operations in the area, including an attack in July that health authorities said killed more than ninety people, including Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif Israel.
