At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a densely populated area of displaced people in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
The Israeli military had designated this area as a safe zone, urging Palestinians to seek shelter there.
More than 90 people were injured in the strike, according to the health ministry’s statement.
The Israeli military said it is looking into the incident, the Reuters news agency reports.
An Israeli army radio station said sources had described the target of the attack as ”very significant”.
An eyewitness told the reporters that the site of the strike looked like an “earthquake” had hit, and videos from the area show smouldering wreckage and bloodied casualties being loaded onto stretchers.
Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducted about 250. Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,300 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza. Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have limited humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The top United Nations court has ordered Israel to take steps to protect Palestinians as it examines genocide allegations against Israeli leaders. Israel denies the charge.
