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Israeli air strikes on a “humanitarian” zone in Gaza early on Tuesday morning killed at least 19 people, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave.
The strikes targeted a cluster of tents in the al-Mawasi coastal area, near the southern city of Khan Younis, which Israel had designated a humanitarian area that would be relatively safe from the fighting raging in other parts of Gaza.
The health ministry in the strip initially said at least 40 people had been killed, a figure that was questioned by the Israeli military. The ministry later said that 19 dead had been identified and more than 60 people were injured.
The UN condemned the strike, with Tor Wennesland, special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, saying: “I strongly condemn today’s deadly air strikes by Israel on a densely populated area in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Khan Younis where displaced people were sheltering.”
The air strikes left massive craters in the sand dunes, with local first responders working by torchlight overnight to rescue the injured and dig victims out of the sand with shovels and their bare hands, according to video from the site.
“We are facing a massacre against the displaced,” a Palestinian civil defence spokesman in Gaza told local media, referring to the estimated hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have sought shelter in al-Mawasi.
“Rescue operations are ongoing and the efforts being made are great,” he added.
The Israeli military said it was targeting “significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre” in the humanitarian zone, including Samer Ismail Khadr Abu Daqqa, the head of the group’s aerial unit, and two other senior militants.
The military added that Hamas was “systematically” using civilian and humanitarian sites as shelters for militant activities, and that before the strike “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.
Hamas in a statement rejected Israeli claims, calling it a “blatant lie” that there were militants present at the targeted site.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the outbreak of war, according to local health authorities. The Israeli military claims that nearly half were armed militants. International aid groups have warned of a looming humanitarian catastrophe in the shattered enclave, with aid proving increasingly difficult to supply because of deteriorating security.
UN aid and health agencies this month launched a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, after outbreaks were detected. The Israeli military has allowed for so-called operational “pauses” in specific areas to allow health teams to administer vaccines. According to the Israeli defence ministry, as of early this week nearly 200,000 people had been administered a dose.
Yet on Monday, Israeli forces in northern Gaza stopped a UN convoy involved in the polio vaccine rollout for more than eight hours, according to UN refugee agency head Philippe Lazzarini. The staff were later released safely back to their base.
The Israeli military rejected claims that the convoy was part of the polio campaign, and said there were suspicions that militants were embedded within the humanitarian staff.
Israeli officials say 1,200 Israelis were killed during Hamas’s October 7 cross-border attack that sparked the war last year, with some 250 taken hostage.
Just over 100 hostages, including foreign nationals, are still being held captive in Gaza, with ceasefire-for-hostage talks mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar staggering along inconclusively for months.
More than a third of the remaining hostages are believed by Israeli intelligence to be dead. Six Israelis were shot dead by Hamas earlier this month as Israeli forces neared a Hamas tunnel complex in southern Gaza where they were being held. Their bodies were later retrieved and taken back to Israel for burial.
Also on Tuesday, the Israeli military admitted it was “highly likely” that a dual US-Turkish national was killed by its forces late last week while demonstrating in the occupied West Bank.
Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was protesting against Israeli settlement expansion in the village of Beita when she was struck in the head by live fire.
Israel’s military said it was “highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator” of what it termed a “violent riot” including rock throwing. The force said it had launched an internal criminal investigation, and expressed its “deepest regret” over Eygi’s death.
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