40 Killed, 60 Injured As Israel Strikes Gaza Safe Zone Sheltering The Displaced: 'Without Warning'

Israeli military said its aircraft targeted an operations centre in Khan Younis belonging to Hamas fighters. It claimed measures were taken to minimise the risk of civilian harm during the operation. 

Around 40 people were killed and at least 60 others wounded in Israeli strikes on a designated safe zone in southern Gaza, the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority said on Tuesday. According to AFP, the strikes hit al-Mawasi in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younis where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been seeking refuge. Al-Mawasi had been designated a safe zone by the Israeli military early in the war.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its aircraft targeted an operations centre in Khan Younis belonging to Hamas fighters. It also stated that measures were taken to minimise the risk of civilian harm during the operation. 

Gaza civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair told AFP early Tuesday that "40 martyrs and 60 injured were recovered and transferred" to nearby hospitals following the overnight strike. 

According to the BBC, local residents reported that three strikes hit tents sheltering displaced people in the humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi. The strikes reportedly caused massive craters in the area. "Our crews are still working to recover 15 missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Mawasi, Khan Younis," Mughair told AFP.

In another statement, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal reported that no warning had been given to the people sheltering in the camp before the strike. He added that a shortage of tools and equipment was hampering the rescue operations. AFP quoted Basal as saying that the strikes destroyed between 20 and 40 tents, and left behind “three deep craters”. "There are entire families who disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Younis massacre," Basal added.

Israel is known to occasionally carry out operations in and around the area, including a strike in July that killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, and over 90 others, according to the Gaza health authorities.

The Israeli military said in a statement early Tuesday that its aircraft had "struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Younis".

"The terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated humanitarian area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops," it added, reported AFP.