Since October, Al-Mawasi, home to thousands of displaced Palestinians, has been targeted multiple times.
At least 90 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded in Israeli military strikes on al-Mawasi, located west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported on Saturday that 90 people were killed and 300 others injured, including some critically. The attack by Israeli warplanes targeted tents housing displaced Palestinians and a water distillation unit in an area designated as a “safe zone” by the Israeli military, according to a Gaza civil defense spokesperson.
Images from the scene showed Palestinians rescuing people from under the rubble, with children and paramedics among the injured.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum described the incident as “a new massacre committed by the Israeli military,” noting that the area was struck by “five bombs and five missiles.”
“The scenes from the targeted area are incredibly bloody and devastating,” he said. Victims were taken to Nasser and Kuwaiti hospitals. An official at Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera that medical teams were overwhelmed and unable to receive more wounded patients, while civil defense teams continued their work at the site of the attack.
The Israeli military claimed it acted based on “precise intelligence” to target an area where “two senior Hamas terrorists” and additional fighters were hiding among civilians. It described the location of the strike as “an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, and sheds.”
In a subsequent news conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the two Hamas officials targeted were the group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, and senior Hamas commander, Rafa Salama. He stated it was unclear if either were killed.
“Either way, we will get to the whole of the leadership of Hamas,” the Israeli leader said. Hamas asserted that Deif and Salama were not killed and called the premise of Israel’s assault “false,” noting it was not the first time the Israeli military made such claims later proven false.
“The al-Mawasi massacre in Khan Younis has been committed against an area crowded with more than 80,000 displaced people. This is a clear indication from the Zionist government of its ongoing war of extermination against our Palestinian people, through systematic targeting of defenseless displaced civilians in tents, shelters, and residential neighborhoods,” Hamas said in a statement.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, after Israel banned Al Jazeera, Hamdah Salhut said this is a familiar pattern by the Israeli military to justify attacks on “safe zones.”
“We have repeatedly seen attacks on areas housing tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians. This tactic is commonly used by Israeli forces, claiming civilians are being used as ‘human shields’ for Hamas figures to justify killing dozens of civilians.”
The al-Mawasi area has been repeatedly targeted by the Israeli military, with a strike in late May killing at least 21 people after hitting tents housing displaced families. Gaza civil defense reported that the deputy director of its fire and rescue department was killed in a separate Israeli strike in central Khan Younis, and eight other members were wounded. It added that Israeli aircraft bombed the area again as civil defense teams were rescuing people from a residential building.
At least 60 bodies were discovered after the Israeli military withdrew from some neighborhoods in Gaza City in the devastated northern part of the besieged enclave, civil defense teams said on Friday. More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the start of the war.
Last month, Israeli forces killed at least 274 Palestinians in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp during a daylight operation to free four Israeli captives.
Updating the casualties since October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that at least 38,443 Palestinians have been killed and 88,481 injured in Israel’s war on the enclave.
