At least 19 people were killed and many others injured in an Israeli attack on a designated “security zone” in southern Gaza, authorities said.
Gaza’s health ministry said the bodies of victims recovered so far were being taken to hospitals after the missile attack on a tent camp in the al-Mawasi neighborhood of Khan Younis where Palestinians had sought refuge early Tuesday. Israeli attacks have frequently hit areas where its army had previously directed civilians seeking safety.
Earlier Tuesday, the government media office in Gaza and the Palestinian Civil Defense reported that at least 40 people were killed and more than 60 wounded in the attack, with many others missing.
The Israeli military disputed the Palestinian figures and said the attack, which witnesses said involved at least four missile strikes, targeted a Hamas command center, which the Palestinian armed group called a “blatant lie.”
“A number of victims are still under the rubble, under the sand and on the roads, and ambulance and civil protection teams cannot reach and recover them, and they have not yet reached hospitals,” the Health Ministry statement noted, revising the death toll.
Rescuers were seen picking through the sand and rubble with gardening tools and bare hands, using mobile phone lights. Body parts were pulled from the sand, including what appeared to be a human leg.
Israel’s war on Gaza has caused enormous destruction and displaced some 90 percent of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Israeli evacuation orders, which now cover much of the territory, have driven hundreds of thousands of people to seek refuge in al-Mawasi. Aid agencies are struggling to provide even the most basic services.