Shelling leaves dozens dead in Israel declared safe zone

AL MAWASI, Palestinian Territories: Israel had declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone as it pushed into Rafah near the Egyptian border, but on Saturday Palestinians raced to collect the dozens of casualties from the army’s latest strike.

Sirens wailed and women screamed as children were pulled out of the wreckage and rushed to nearby hospitals following the strike on a displacement camp.

“What did we do? What did we do? We were only sitting near the beach,” one woman from the coastal town cried.

The Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said more than 71 people were killed and 289 people wounded in what it called a “massacre” at Al-Mawasi camp. AFP could not independently confirm the toll.

The Israeli military said the attack targeted Hamas military strategist Mohammed Deif and Rafa Salama, a brigade commander, describing the pair as “two of the masterminds of the October 7 massacre” which set off the war in Gaza.

The Israeli military said of its attack targeting Deif -- whose fate remains unclear -- that “the area that was struck is an open area, surrounded by trees, several buildings and sheds. It was not a tent complex, but an operational compound”.

A Hamas statement rejected Israel´s claim it had targeted Deif, saying it was intended “to cover up the magnitude of the horrific massacre”.

The camp, near the city of Khan Yunis, was designated a humanitarian area after Israel in May ordered civilians to evacuate other parts of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people were sheltering there, according to UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, which operates health sites in the area. “We have been warning for months that there is no safe place for anyone in Gaza amid Israel’s military bombardment,” the charity said in a statement.

Black smoke billowed behind a wide, ash-strewn street in Al-Mawasi where bodies lay in pools of blood, some covered by sheets. Men struggling to carry the wounded wove through those beyond help to get to ambulances waiting with doors open. Others were piled onto donkey-pulled carts.

Despite the Nasser Hospital reporting it was at full-capacity, ambulances kept arriving with wounded on orange stretchers, including a man with a towel tied to his leg as a makeshift tourniquet. A woman outside the hospital could be head pleading: “Please enough, enough for God sake.”

The Israeli military said Saturday’s offensive “struck an open area” that “was not a tent complex but an operational compound”.

“According to our information, only Hamas terrorists were present and there were no civilians,” it said.

According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, he discussed the strike on Al-Mawasi with security and military officials as part of his goal “to eliminate senior Hamas officials”. Gaza’s civil defence agency said heavy shelling was preventing its teams from reaching the “many bodies” scattered in the streets. Mahmud Abu Akar described missiles raining down seemingly endlessly.