Witnesses at the Khan Younis area have described chaotic scenes after the Israeli attack killed at least 40 people and wounded many more.
Attaf al-Shaar, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah and present at the site of the attack, said the strike happened just after midnight and caused a fire. “The people were buried in the sand. They were retrieved as body parts,” she told an Associated Press reporter.
Al-Mawasi has been crowded with Palestinians sleeping in tents since the Israeli army designated the coastal area a “safe zone” during its ground invasions of Khan Younis and nearby Rafah.
Israeli attack on Gaza tent camp leaves vast crater
This vast crater was caused by an Israeli air attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi camp, southern Gaza, early this morning.
More than 45 people have been killed in the attack, while at least 60 people have been injured.
After strikes on tented encampments, ‘my heart goes out to those who survived’
Vascular surgeon Bara Zuhaili, who recently returned to the United States from Gaza, has described the effect that attacks such as the one on al-Mawasi have on civilians.
“When I hear of attacks such as this one, my heart goes out to those who survived,” Zuhaili told Al Jazeera.
The surgeon witnessed a similar strike on a tented encampment in Khan Younis which the Israelis claimed had been precise. At Nasser Hospital, he noticed a woman restlessly pacing in the emergency room and discovered she was moving between her six-year old daughter, who was dying of severe shrapnel wounds to her face, and her nine-year-old, who had both legs amputated.
“This young mother was torn both physically and mentally as she said goodbye to her daughter while trying to [be with] the other who was actively bleeding,” the doctor said. “These are the kinds of stories we get in such attacks, while the media focus on the number of dead.”
Israeli army claims al-Mawasi attack targeted head of Hamas’s aerial unit
Israel’s army has said the strike on an encampment in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, targeted Samer Ismail Hader Abudaqa, whom it identified as the head of Hamas’s aerial unit. In the statement, the army did not specify whether the alleged Hamas official was killed or injured in the strike.
Hamas has dubbed the Israeli claim as a “clear lie”.
Al-Mawasi attack survivors say safe zone turned into ‘inferno’
Survivors of Israel’s attack on al-Mawasi say their tents were “engulfed in fire” as the Israeli army struck the designated safe zone.
Samah Abu Rahmeh told Al Jazeera there was an explosion “beyond imagination”. “We woke up to the Israeli warplanes firing missiles at us. The tents were engulfed in flames, like inferno,” she said. “This is claimed to be a safe humanitarian zone, al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. But in reality, these are all lies,” Abu Rahmeh added.
Fayez Hassan recounted the aftermath of the strike. “We rushed to find many dead bodies blown into pieces and others injured,” he said, adding those were “shocking scenes, beyond any words”. “It is part of Israel’s unjustifiable barbaric air strikes,” Hassan said.
Bodies of 19 people recovered after al-Mawasi attack
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the bodies of 19 people were recovered and identified in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis.
“There are still a number of victims under the rubble, under the sand and on the roads,” the ministry said. “Ambulance and civil defence crews cannot reach them and rescue them, and they have not reached the hospitals yet.”
Palestinian Foreign Ministry says latest ‘massacre’ enabled by international community’s failures
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has slammed the international community for failing to implement international law to halt Israel’s war in Gaza and prevent attacks including that on al-Mawasi.
In a statement, it said this failure enabled Israel to “persist in committing further massacres” in al-Mawasi and other areas of the besieged Strip. “An immediate ceasefire is the only way to protect Palestinian civilians and create a suitable environment for achieving a prisoner exchange deal,” it added.
‘Everything was grey’ recounts al-Mawasi attack survivor
What began as a peaceful night for Tala Herzallah, gazing up at a sky full of stars, quickly transformed into a scene of devastation after an Israeli attack on a tented encampment at al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.
Herzallah, a 22-year-old university student, was sleeping in a tent with her family when the attack occurred in the early hours of Tuesday, describing how, in a matter of seconds, “everything was turned upside down”.
The missiles struck about 200 metres (650 feet) from where she was staying. The serene night sky was replaced by flames, smoke and destruction. “I only saw two colours – red and grey. Screams, crying, and the sound of ambulances were all I could hear,” she recounted. “I felt like I had entered one of my nightmares, but it was real life.”
The scale of the attack was shocking, Herzallah noted, saying that the missiles were intended for much larger targets. “These missiles were meant for the biggest buildings, not for tents made of the weakest materials in the world,” she said.
Israeli air strikes on a tent encampment in al-Mawasi on September 10
