AL MAWASI: An Israeli strike on Tuesday on Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in Gaza’s southern province of Khan Yunis, killed 40 people, Palestinian civil defence agency said.

Israeli military had earlier designated Al-Mawasi a safe zone, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there. However, in its latest claim, the Israeli army said it had targeted a “Hamas command centre” in the area.

In Gaza, civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughair said 40 dead and 60 wounded were taken to nearby hospitals following the strike on Al-Mawasi early Tuesday. “Our crews are still working to recover 15 missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Mawasi, Khan Yunis,” Mughair said.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Basal said people sheltering in the camp in the dunes along the Mediterranean coast had not been warned of the strike.

The strike left behind “three deep craters”, he said. “There are entire families who disappeared under the sand.”

UN envoy condemns the strike; Israeli defence minister says focus will turn to border with Lebanon as mission in Gaza nears completion

Without prior warning

Survivors of the strike scrambled to retrieve their belongings from the rubble, including mattresses and clothing.

“They told us to come to Al-Mawasi, so we came to Al-Mawasi, we settled here. The area was bombed without prior warning, they didn’t ask us to flee to a safer area or anything,” a Palestinian man told journalists without giving his name.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Yunis”.

“The terrorist organisations 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 IDF (Israeli army) troops,” it claimed.

Later, the military questioned the toll provided by authorities in Gaza, saying the numbers “do not align with the information held by the IDF”. It named several Palestinians it claimed were killed in the strike, describing them as “directly involved in the execution of the Oct 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war. Hamas said Israeli military claims that Hamas fighters were present at the scene of the strike were a blatant lie.

Egyptian, Qatari and US efforts to broker an elusive ceasefire have focused on securing the release of prisoners held by Palestinians on Oct 7 in exchange for a pause in Israel’s offensive.

Close to fulfilling mission

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said forces were near to fulfilling their mission in Gaza and their focus would turn to the country’s northern border with Lebanon as daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah take place.

“The centre of gravity is moving northward, we are near to completing our tasks in the south, but our mission here is not yet done,” Gallant told troops on Israel’s northern border in a video sent by his office.

At the same time, he admitted that a truce and prisoner swap deal would give Israel a “strategic opportunity” to address other security challenges, claiming that Hamas “as a military formation no longer exists”.

UN envoy Tor Wennesland condemned the strike, saying international humanitarian law “must be upheld at all times”, while stressing “civilians must never be used as human shields”.

Truce efforts stalled

Efforts to secure a truce in the fighting remain stalled, with Hamas demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border. In Cairo, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told Egypt’s top diplomat that the bloc fully supported a truce.

“A ceasefire that has been announced so many times; we are almost there, but we are not there. Why? Quite simple: because those who are waging war have no interest in putting an end to it,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2024