DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – An Israeli attack on a crowded camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel says targeting Hamas militants is “significant”, a charge denied by the militant group.
It was one of the deadliest attacks in Muwasi, a crowded encampment on the Gaza coast that Israel has designated as a humanitarian zone for hundreds of thousands of civilians to seek refuge from the Israeli-Hamas war.
The Civil Defense, the first responder operating under the Hamas government, said it had recovered 40 bodies from the attack and was still searching for people. He said the whole family died in his camp.
An Associated Press camera operator saw three large craters at the scene, where first responders and evacuees were sifting through sand and rubble with garden tools and their bare hands by cellphone light. He pulled body parts from the sand, including what looked like human legs.
Attaf al-Shaar, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah, said the attack happened after midnight and caused a fire.
“People were buried in the sand. He was taken as a body part,” he told Associated Press reporters at the scene.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of three hospitals that received casualties, said about two dozen bodies were brought in from the attack.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants operating in a command and control center. He said his forces are using precise ammunition, aerial surveillance and other measures to avoid civilian casualties.
Israel said it was trying to avoid harming civilians throughout the war, which was ignited by the October 7 attack by Hamas. It blamed Hamas for the deaths because the militants often operate in residential areas and are known to position tunnels, rocket launchers and other infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.
Hamas issued a statement denying the presence of militants in the area. Neither Israel nor Hamas have provided evidence to substantiate their claims.
The war has caused massive destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Israel’s evacuation order, which now covers about 90% of the area, has pushed hundreds of thousands of people to Muwasi, a poor line of encampments along the coast.
Aid groups have struggled to provide basic services in Muwasi, and Israel has occasionally attacked targets there despite being designated a humanitarian zone.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 40,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the war began. It does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack. They kidnapped another 250 people and still hold about 100 after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians jailed by Israel during a week-long ceasefire last November. About a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent much of this year trying to broker a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, but the talks have repeatedly stalled as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of creating new and unacceptable ones. request.
The war has turned Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, and humanitarian groups have struggled to provide aid amid ongoing fighting, Israeli sanctions, and violations of law and order. International authorities on the severity of the hunger crisis said in June that the region was at risk of famine.
The main United Nations agency that provides aid to the Palestinians said the Israeli army stopped a convoy involved in a polio vaccination campaign for more than eight hours on Monday, despite coordination with the military. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the arrested staff had been involved in campaigns in northern Gaza and Gaza City.
“The convoy was stopped at gunpoint after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint with threats to detain UN staff,” he wrote on social platform X. “Heavy damage was caused by bulldozers to UN armored vehicles.”
He said staff and a convoy later returned to the UN base, but it was unclear whether the polio vaccination campaign would continue Tuesday in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The vaccination drive, which was launched after doctors discovered the first case of polio in the Palestinian territories in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has crippled the health care system.