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Israeli airstrikes tore through a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza on Wednesday, sparking fires and killing at least 21 people, according to the head of a nearby hospital, in the latest attack on the sprawling tent city that Israel has designated a humanitarian safe zone. but has targeted several times. A spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense agency said five children were killed in the strike.
Israel’s military said it had struck high-ranking Hamas militants involved in terrorist activities in the region, without giving further details, and said it had taken precautions to minimize harm to civilians.
The strike on the Muwasi tent camp was one of several deadly attacks across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. At least 10 more people, including four children, have been killed in an Israeli attack in the middle of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medics.
Israel is disastrous war in Gazalaunched after the October 2023 attack by Hamas, shows no sign of ending after nearly 14 months. Hamas is still holding dozens of Israeli hostages, and most Gazans are displaced and dependent on international food aid for survival. Israel is also waging a major offensive in the isolated north, where experts say Palestinians could face starvation.
The Biden administration has pledged a new push toward a Gaza ceasefire now that a ceasefire has been reached in Lebanon between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah, ending more than a year of cross-border fighting. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump this week demanded the release of hostages held by Hamas before he takes office in January.
At least 28 people were injured in Wednesday’s strike in Muwasi, a desolate area with few public services and home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people, said Atif al-Hout, director of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Hanyounis.
Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images
An Associated Press reporter counted at least 15 bodies at the hospital, but said it was difficult to get an exact count because many of the dead were dismembered and some were badly burned.
“It was like doomsday,” said injured woman Iman Juma, who fought back tears as she described how her father, her brothers and her brothers’ children were killed in the strike.
Videos and photos of the strike shared widely on social media showed flames and a plume of black smoke rising into the night sky, as well as twisted metal tent frames and shredded fabric. Palestinians searched the still-burning wreckage, shouting, “Over here, guys!” Beyond, civilians stood at a distance, watching the destruction.
The military said the strikes caused secondary explosions, indicating that explosives in the area had been detonated. It was impossible to independently confirm Israel’s claims, and the strikes could also have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the camp.
Shortly after the strike, Al-Awda Hospital said two people were killed and 38 injured in an attack on a residential block in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The military did not immediately comment on the strike, but said previous strikes in the central Gaza Strip had hit “terrorist targets.”
Israel says it is trying to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths, saying the militants often operate in residential areas and are known to place tunnels, rocket launchers and other infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.
Previous Israeli strikes on tent camps in Gaza have sparked widespread international outrage, such as when the last moments of an injured student were captured on video as he burned to death in a tent outside a hospital.
In the northern Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinian families said Israel’s expansion offensive had forced them out of schools that had been turned into shelters. Associated Press footage shows people leaving Bethlehem on the road on Wednesday, many crammed into donkey carts with their belongings in hand. Others walked.
“This morning, a quadcopter (drone) detonated four bombs near the school. There were injured people, human remains – we left with nothing,” Sadeja al-Rahel said.
The 57-year-old woman said her family has been eating grass, leaves and animal feed for two months because of a lack of food aid in the north.
Aid flows into Gaza fell in October, and hunger is widespread across the territory, even in central Gaza, where aid groups have greater access. Humanitarian organizations say that Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and a breakdown in law and order make it difficult to deliver aid. Israel has said it is working to increase aid flows.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which did not specify the number of militants. The Israeli army claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants without providing evidence.
On October 7, 2023, a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 people. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third of them presumed dead.
On Wednesday, Israel announced that its forces had recovered the body of a hostage who was captured alive during the October 7 attack. Israel believes Itai Svirski was killed by his captors.
Families of hostages held in Gaza are increasingly worried that their loved ones are at risk as the war drags on. Israel’s military on Wednesday released the results of an investigation into the deaths of six hostages whose bodies were found in August, concluding that they were likely shot by their captors after a strike near Israel in February.
contributed to this report.
