The Israeli military launched airstrikes on designated humanitarian areas in the Gaza Strip that the IDF says are harboring Hamas terrorists, killing and wounding dozens of people, according to the Hamas-run civil defense agency.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed that at least four Israeli missiles hit a tent camp and Hamas command center near Khan Younis, where thousands of civilians who fled their war-torn homes are now living.
The attack “hit a key Hamas terrorist operating from a command and control center set up inside the humanitarian area of Khan Yunis,” the IDF said in a statement early Tuesday, adding that the country's air force had taken measures to limit civilian casualties.
The military said it used “precision weapons, aerial surveillance and additional measures” to reduce the risk of attacking innocent civilians fleeing the war at the camp site. According to CNN:.
But Gaza's civil emergency services said the victims included women and children and called the attack “a new Israeli massacre.”
An official from Hamas' civil defense agency He told the BBC The attack left 40 people dead and 60 injured.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA also reported a similar death toll, citing medical sources.
At least 20 tents in the crowded camp were set ablaze, with some of the victims buried in deep craters left by the missile.
“Entire families disappeared into the sand,” Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told CNN, adding that there was no warning before the blast.
The Israel Defense Forces designated the area as safe for civilians but accused Hamas of misusing that designation to carry out terrorist activities against Israel.
More than 40,900 Palestinians have been killed in IDF attacks on Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters invaded Israel, massacring 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
With post wire
