Israeli strike in Gaza humanitarian zone kills 40

GAZA STRIP: Gaza´s civil defence agency said on Tuesday that an Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone in the south of the Palestinian territory killed 40 people and wounded 60 others, with the Israeli army saying it had targeted a Hamas command centre in the area.

The strike hit Al-Mawasi -- in Gaza´s main southern city of Khan Yunis -- which was designated a safe zone by the Israeli military early in the war, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there.

However, Israel´s military has occasionally carried out operations in and around the area, including a strike in July that it said killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, and which Gaza health authorities said killed more than 90 people.

Gaza civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair told AFP on Tuesday that “40 martyrs and 60 injured were recovered and transferred” to nearby hospitals following the overnight strike.

“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 added.

In a separate statement, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that people sheltering in the camp had not been warned of the strike, adding a shortage of tools and equipment was hindering rescue operations.

“More than 20 to 40 tents were completely damaged,” he said, adding the strike left behind “three deep craters”.

“There are entire families who disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre.”

The Israeli military said in a statement on Tuesday that 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 troops,” it added. Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that claims its fighters were present at the scene of the strike were “a blatant lie”.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza feel they are “zombies” left to fend for themselves, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian Territories said on Tuesday.

“´We´re two million zombies living on our own. All the ties are broken.´ This is how the people of Gaza see themselves,” Muhannad Hadi said, citing a Palestinian he met during one of his many trips to the Gaza Strip.

Hadi was in Brussels for a series of meetings with European officials as the EU´s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, was on a visit to the region, including Egypt and Lebanon.

“So anything that you take for granted, or anything you took for granted, or you worked for yesterday in your life, it´s not there for the people of Gaza, for the majority of the people of Gaza,” Hadi said during a visit to Brussels.

He added that “a lot of people have nothing to eat”, noting that many had no access to electricity or even a bed.

“No one should suffer because of war. No one should suffer because of the wrong politics. No one should suffer because of the failed politics that we are seeing,” the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process said.

He accused politicians around the world of “not doing the job they should be doing”.

“That´s why we don´t have a ceasefire, and that´s why we don´t have a solution to their Gaza crisis,” he added. —AFP