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Israel’s military conducted a missile strike early Tuesday that targeted a humanitarian area in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians there, authorities said.
Details about the strike in the Mawasi coastal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone remained unclear. The area is home to many Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war in which the Israeli military has devastated the wider Gaza Strip after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The Israeli military described the strike as hitting “significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center,” without immediately providing additional evidence.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said dozens had been killed and wounded, without providing precise casualty figures. It described five missiles striking the area, cratering the ground.
The Israeli military said it used “precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional means” it did not immediately describe to limit civilian casualties.
Footage circulating on social media showed deep craters at the site of the attack, the strewn ruins around it covered in shredded tents, a bicycle and other debris. Rescue workers used shovels to shift through the sand. Bystanders used their hands to dig, illuminated by mobile phone light.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack. They abducted another 250 and are still holding around 100 after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
