At least 40 people were killed and dozens were injured following an Israeli attack on a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, according to the Gaza Civil Defense. Israel said it targeted a Hamas “command center.”
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An Israeli strike hit a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis on the night of Monday to Tuesday. According to an official of the Defense Gazan civilian, Mohammed Al-Mughai, “ 40 martyrs and 60 wounded were recovered and transferred ” in nearby hospitals.
” Our teams are still working to find 15 people missing after the strike that targeted the tents of displaced people in al-Mawasi, in Khan Younis “, a city in the south of the Strip Gazahe added.
According to the organization in charge of emergency services in the Gaza Strip, large craters were formed by the Israeli strikes. “Entire families disappeared in the massacre of Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, under the sand, in deep holes,” another spokesman for the civil defense, Mahmoud Basal, said in a statement.
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Human shields
For its part, the Israeli army explained that it had targeted this area after having identified the presence of Hamas leaders there. An Israeli army plane ” struck senior Hamas terrorists operating from a command and control center within the Khan Younis humanitarian zone “, the Israeli army said. Terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated humanitarian area, to carry out terrorist activities against the State ofIsrael and IDF troops “, she said in her statement. Hamas denied having fighters in the humanitarian zone.
Al-Mawasi, in the city of Khan Younis, had been designated a safe zone by the Israeli army at the start of the war, and tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians sought refuge there. The army, however, has continued to carry out periodic operations in the area, including a strike in July that health officials said killed more than 90 people, including Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, according to Israel.
To justify these strikes, Israel explains that Hamas regularly uses civilians as human shields, which the group denies.
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