At least 14 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on tent encampment in Gaza, medics say
2024.09.09 19:31
CAIRO (Reuters) -At least 14 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, medics and Hamas media said early on Tuesday, as the Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center.
Residents and medics said a tent encampment in the Al-Mawasi area, which is designated as a humanitarian zone, was struck by at least four missiles. The camp is crowded with displaced Palestinians who have fled from elsewhere in the enclave.
The Gaza civil emergency service said at least 20 tents caught on fire, and missiles caused craters as deep as nine meters (30 feet).
“Our teams are still moving out martyrs and wounded from the targeted area. It looks like a new Israeli massacre,” a Gaza civil emergency official said.
The Israeli military said it “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Younis.”
“The terrorists advanced and carried out terror attacks against IDF troops and the state of Israel,” the statement said, referring to Israeli Defense Forces.
Ambulances were racing back and forth from the area to a nearby hospital, while Israeli jets could still be heard overhead, residents said.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes at least once, and some have had to flee as many as 10 times.
The war was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas, an Islamist group that controlled Gaza, attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
The two warring sides each blame the other for the failure so far to reach a ceasefire that would end the fighting and see the release of hostages.
