Gaza’s civil defence agency yesterday said that a rash of Israeli air strikes killed at least 40 people, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its offensive in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of the strikes, which came as Hamas officials reported that internal deliberations on the latest Israeli truce offer were nearly complete.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said two Israeli missiles hit several tents in the Al Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Younis, resulting in at least 16 deaths, “most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded”.
After Israel declared Al Mawasi a safe zone in December 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked there seeking refuge from bombardment, but the area has since been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.
Survivors described a large explosion at the densely packed encampment that set multiple tents ablaze.
“We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under God’s protection, when we suddenly saw something red glowing – and then the tent exploded, and the surrounding tents caught fire,” Israa Abu Al Rus said.
Bassal said that Israeli strikes on two other encampments of displaced Gazans killed a further nine people – seven in the northern town of Beit Lahia, and a father and son near Al Mawasi.
Separately, the civil defence reported two more attacks on displaced people in Jabaliya – one that killed at least seven members of the Asaliya family, and another that killed six people at a school being used as a shelter – as well as Israeli shelling in Gaza City that killed two.
As the Israeli air strikes continue, the challenge to clear undetonated explosives is huge.
Israel’s bombardments resumed in March after a January ceasefire fell apart – an offensive that the United Nations said has captured or depopulated two-thirds of the enclave. More bombs fall daily.
The UN Mine Action Service estimates that between one in 10 and one in 20 bombs fired into Gaza did not go off.
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