AL MAWASI: Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on Tuesday on a humanitarian zone in the Palestinian territory killed 40 people.
The strike hit Al Mawasi— in Gaza's southern province 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. Israel's military has carried out occasional 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.
Egyptian, Qatari, and US efforts to broker an elusive ceasefire have focused on securing the release of captives in exchange for a pause in Israel's offensive.
In Gaza, civil defence official Mohammed al Mughair said 40 dead and 60 wounded were taken to nearby hospitals following the strike on Al Mawasi early on Tuesday. "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 said.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Basal said people sheltering in the camp in the dunes along the Mediterranean coast had not been warned of the strike. The strike left behind "three deep craters," he said, adding: "There are entire families who disappeared under the sand."
Survivors of the strike scrambled to retrieve their belongings from the rubble, including mattresses and clothing, an AFP journalist reported. "They told us to come to Al Mawasi, so we came to Al Mawasi, we settled here. The area was bombed without prior warning; they didn't ask us to flee to a safer area or anything," a Palestinian man said without giving his name.
UN envoy Tor Wennesland condemned the strike, saying international humanitarian law "must be upheld at all times," while stressing "civilians must never be used as human shields."
Meanwhile, the third phase of a giant polio vaccination drive targeting children in Gaza began on Tuesday in a particularly war-ravaged zone, but the WHO said a support convoy had to abort its mission. After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began last week targeting over 640,000 children under 10, aided by localised "humanitarian pauses" in fighting. After covering central and southern Gaza, the campaign moved into its final phase in the north from Tuesday until Thursday, said World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.
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