Local residents and medical personnel at the scene said at least 20 tents were set ablaze when the rockets hit, leaving a 30-foot-deep crater at a tent camp near Khan Yunis. The Israel Defense Forces said the attack struck a “major Hamas terrorist” operating in the area.
At least 40 people were killed and 60 wounded in an Israeli attack on a displaced Palestinian tent camp in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted a medical source as saying.
Gaza’s civil emergency service said at least four rockets hit a tent camp near Khan Yunis in the Al Mawashi area, a designated humanitarian zone, early Tuesday.
Residents and medical workers at the site said the rocket hit set at least 20 tents on fire and left a crater up to nine metres deep.
A Gaza civil emergency official said Gaza teams were “still transporting martyrs and wounded from the target area” and claimed it “appears to be a new Israeli massacre”.
Emergency services said women and children were among the 65 dead and wounded, but did not give details on the number of dead or wounded.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed in a statement that they carried out the attack “which struck a key Hamas terrorist target operating from a command and control center set up in the humanitarian area of ​​Khan Yunis”.
They added: “Terrorists proceeded and carried out terrorist attacks against IDF units and the State of Israel.
“Prior to the attack, numerous measures were taken to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, including the use of precision weapons, aerial surveillance and the use of additional assets.”
Hamas has denied claims that Israel has used and is using militant forces to evacuate civilian areas of the camps for military purposes, calling them “clear lies intended to justify these heinous crimes.”
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday that at least 40,988 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7.
It added that Hamas militants in Gaza have killed about 1,200 people, taken 251 hostages and wounded 94,825 others.