GAZA’S CIVIL DEFENCE agency has said that 20 people, including five children, have been killed by an Israeli strike on a displacement camp near Khan Younis.

The agency’s spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP there were “20 martyrs, including five children, and dozens were injured after the occupation (Israel) bombed the tents of the displaced in the Al-Mawasi area” near Khan Younis.

Asked about the strike, the Israeli military claimed it targeted “senior Hamas terrorists… in the humanitarian area in Khan Younis”.

It said there were “secondary explosions” following the strike, which they said indicated that weapons were stored there.

The Israeli military declared Al-Mawasi a safe “humanitarian zone” early in the war and ordered Gazans to evacuate there for their own safety.

Tens of thousands did, but the area has been repeatedly struck by Israeli forces, including in September in an attack that killed 19, according to the civil defence agency.

That attack drew international condemnation, including from Western nations and the Arab League.

In July, Israel hit the camp in a strike that the health ministry said killed 92 people. The Israeli military insisted it hit a Hamas compound and targeted two masterminds of the 7 October attack.

The Israeli military said it took “numerous steps” to “mitigate the risk of harming civilians” before the strike on Wednesday and blamed Hamas for using civilians as human shields.

Almost the entire population of Gaza has been displaced during the more than 14 months of war. Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has caused at least 44,532 deaths, most of them civilians.

© AFP 2024