Jerusalem, Sep 10 (EFE).- Israel struck a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza early Tuesday, resulting in the death of 40 people and wounding another 60, medical sources said.
The strikes hit a cluster of tents in the al-Mawasi coastal area, near the southern city of Khan Yunis, which Israel had designated a humanitarian area.
“Several terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis were struck overnight in a precise, intelligence-based strike,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
“These terrorists were directly involved in the execution of the Oct. 7 Massacre and have been recently operating to carry out terrorist activities,” they added.
Some 40 people were killed and another 60 wounded in the strike, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing medical sources.
A total of five missiles were used in the attack, according to local reports, the agency said.
The attack, which took place near the British Hospital at the entrance to the Mawasi area, also left a large number of people missing.
The Israeli military said that the information published by the government of the enclave, ruled de facto by Islamist group Hamas did not “align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike.”
“Despite the extensive measures taken by the IDF to enable the Gazan population to move away from combat zones, including by designating a Humanitarian Area, the Hamas terrorist organization continues to embed its operatives and military infrastructure in the Humanitarian Area and systematically use Gazan civilians as a human shield for its terrorist activities,” it added.
The Palestinian group slammed Israel’s claims, calling them a “blatant lie” that it used to justify its “atrocious crimes.”
In a statement, the enclave’s Civil Defense agency described the attack as “one of the most heinous massacres since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip” and said that “entire families disappeared in the sand due to the concussion missiles,” Wafa reported.
Ninety percent of Gaza’s population – more than 2 million people – is currently displaced, and almost all of them are crowded into a humanitarian zone designated by the Israeli military, which covers 14 percent of the center and south of the Strip in the areas of Mawasi, Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah.
Since the start of the war in Gaza in October, nearly 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 94,800 in relentless Israeli attacks, according to the latest figures from the health ministry. EFE
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