At least 19 people were killed in an Israeli air strike overnight on a designated humanitarian area in southern Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Witnesses said the air strike destroyed an area of tents housing displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, southwest of Khan Younis, leaving large craters in the sand.
“The bombing was so intense. People were thrown into the air,” one evacuee told the BBC. “You can’t imagine the devastation.”
The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck what it called “several senior Hamas terrorists” operating there – a claim Hamas has denied.
The army also disputed the initial death toll given by the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency, which reported that rescue teams had found more than 40 bodies.
Hundreds of thousands of people from other parts of Gaza are living in dire conditions in al-Mawasi after being told by Israel to evacuate there for their own safety.
The UN said the humanitarian zone spans just 41 square kilometres (16 square miles) and lacks critical infrastructure and basic services, while aid delivery is limited by access and security issues.
Witnesses said large explosions rocked al-Mawasi shortly after midnight local time on Tuesday (21:00 GMT on Monday).
Khaled Mahmoud, a volunteer for a charity who lives near the site of the air strike, told the BBC that he and other volunteers rushed to help but were shocked by the scale of the devastation.
“The attacks created three 7m deep craters. [23ft] deep and buried more than 20 tents,” he said.
Aya Madi, a mother of seven displaced from the southern city of Rafah, later told a journalist working for the BBC: “We woke up and there was just sand and fire.
“My children were screaming, and the tent collapsed on them. I pulled them out of the rubble.
“I held my two-month-old son, thinking he was dead, covered in sand, gasping for air. I bathed him and thanked God he was still alive.”
All those killed were civilians, she said, adding that “there was not a single resistance fighter”.
“All that remains is dust and ash,” she added. “Some [the casualties] Some were torn to pieces, some had to be dug up to be found, some were found in people’s houses… The scene was horrifying.”
Another woman, Aisha Nafi al-Shaeri, said: “These were all tents for displaced people. And now everything is destroyed.”
“They told people to stay here, but there was nowhere safe. Those people had nothing, and they were sleeping.”
“They didn’t warn anyone. Everyone was sleeping, and suddenly they started shelling.”
The Civil Defense chief said overnight that more than 40 people had been killed and more than 60 others injured.
Later on Monday, an official at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis told the BBC that 13 people killed in the air strike had been brought there.
In the afternoon, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said in a statement that hospitals had received a total of 19 bodies and more than 60 wounded, some of them in serious condition. The ministry did not say how many were men, women or children.
The ministry added that rescuers had yet to reach some other victims who remained buried under sand and rubble or on the road.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the aircraft carried out “a precision strike on a number of senior Hamas terrorists operating in a command and control center embedded inside the humanitarian area”.
These included Samer Abu Daqqa, head of Hamas’ air force unit, and Osama Tabesh, head of the observation and targeting department at Hamas’ military intelligence headquarters, the report added.
“Prior to the attack, we conducted extensive intelligence gathering as well as continuous aerial surveillance in the hours before the attack, confirming the presence of terrorists in the area along with other terrorist fighters,” the report said, adding that the casualty numbers given by the Hamas-run administration “do not match” the report’s information.
The IDF accused Hamas of sending its forces and military infrastructure into the humanitarian zone and using civilians as human shields.
A Hamas statement condemned the attack on al-Mawasi as a “brutal massacre” and rejected the IDF’s claim that it had a command center there.
“This is a clear lie to justify these ugly crimes. The resistance has repeatedly denied that any of its members were present at the civilian gatherings or used these places for military purposes,” the report said.
UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland condemned the airstrike on a densely populated area where displaced people were taking shelter.
“I stress that international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinctiveness, proportionality and precautionary measures in attack, must be upheld at all times,” he said. “I also stress that civilians must never be used as human shields.”
He also urged Israel and Hamas to immediately agree to a ceasefire and release the remaining hostages in Gaza.
The Israeli military launched an operation against Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
More than 40,980 people have died in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
It is estimated that around 1.9 million people – more than 80% of the population – have been displaced by the war, and some have had to flee up to 10 times.
