Gaza civil defence says 40 killed, 60 wounded in Israeli strike on humanitarian zone

Israeli mourners attend the funeral of Yuri Birnbaum, one of three Israelis killed by a Jordanian gunman at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, at a cemetery in Petzael near the Jordan Valley on September 9, 2024. [AFP]

Gaza's civil defence agency said early Tuesday that a strike on the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in the Palestinian territory's main southern city of Khan Yunis killed 40 people and wounded 60 others, with the Israeli army saying it had hit a Hamas command centre in the area.

Civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair told AFP that "40 martyrs and 60 injured were recovered and transferred" to nearby hospitals following the 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.

Civil defence sources said separately that the strike had left behind large craters.

"Entire families disappeared in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre, under the sand, in deep holes," said civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal.

The Israeli military said in a statement early Tuesday that its aircraft had "struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis".

"The terrorist organizations 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".