Israeli strike kills 40 in humanitarian zone

Palestinians inspect the damage at the makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi, Khan Yunis. Pics/AFP

An Israeli strike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants and disputed the death toll.

It was among the deadliest strikes yet in Muwasi, a sprawl of crowded tent camps along the Gaza coast that Israel designated as a humanitarian zone for hundreds of thousands of civilians to seek shelter from the Israel-Hamas war. Gaza's Civil Defense said its first responders recovered 40 bodies from the strike and were still looking for people. It said entire families were killed in their tents.

A huge crater caused by an Israeli airstrike

An Associated Press camera operator saw three large craters at the scene, where first responders and displaced people were sifting through the sand and rubble with garden tools and their bare hands by the light of mobile phones. They pulled body parts from the sand, including what appeared to be a human leg.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants, including three it identified as senior operatives, in a command-and-control centre embedded in the area. It said the three were directly involved in the October 7 attack and other recent attacks against Israel and Israeli forces.

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