Gaza agency says Israeli strike kills 40 in humanitarian zone

Gaza's civil defence agency said Tuesday that an Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone in the south of the Palestinian territory killed 40 people and wounded 60 others.

The strike hit Al-Mawasi -- in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Younis -- which was designated a safe zone by the Israeli military early in the war, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there.

However, Israel's military has occasionally carried out operations in and around the area, including a strike in July that it said killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, and which Gaza health authorities said killed more than 90 people.

Gaza civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair told news agency AFP early Tuesday that "40 martyrs and 60 injured were recovered and transferred" to nearby hospitals following the overnight strike.

"Our crews are still working to recover 15 missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Mawasi, Khan Younis," Mughair added.

In a separate statement, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that people sheltering in the camp had not been warned of the strike, adding a shortage of tools and equipment was hindering rescue operations.

"More than 20 to 40 tents were completely damaged," he said, adding the strike left behind "three deep craters".

"There are entire families who disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Younis massacre."

The Israeli military said in a statement early Tuesday that its aircraft had "struck significant Hamas [fighters] who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Younis".

"The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and [Israeli] troops," it added.

Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that claims its fighters were present at the scene of the strike were "a blatant lie".

Over the course of the war, Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, an accusation the group denies.

Shrinking safe zone

Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, including some hostages killed in captivity, official Israeli figures show.

Fighters seized 251 hostages during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has so far killed at least 40,988 people, according to the health ministry in the territory.

The UN human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during nearly a year of war, according to the United Nations.

From 1,200 inhabitants per square kilometre before the war, the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone now houses "between 30,000 and 34,000 people per square kilometre", and its protected area shrank from 50 square kilometres to 41, the UN has calculated.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been mediating in efforts to forge a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, but talks remain stalled.

Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal, but Israel insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border.