Israeli attack on Al-Mawasi “security camp” in Gaza Strip leaves 71 dead

At least 71 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a refugee camp in the south of the Palestinian territory on Saturday, the Gaza Strip Health Ministry said.

It is the latest reported massacre in the Al-Mawasi region, where many Palestinians have sought refuge, and comes as international mediators continue their efforts to end the war between Israel and Hamas militants.

The number of civilian casualties in the war has caused great outrage around the world.

A statement by Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 71 people were killed and 289 injured in the “brutal massacre by the occupying forces,” meaning Israel, in Al-Mawasi camp.

A correspondent for The new Arabs Arabic-speaking sister service, Al-Arabiat Al-Jadeedreported that medical sources expect the death toll to rise.

The Israeli attacks also targeted rescue teams trying to help the victims, killing some of the rescuers, the correspondent added.

The Israeli military said it was “investigating” the incident.

“What have we done?” shouted a woman on the street. In pictures of AFPTV. “What did we do? We just sat on the beach.”

Sirens blared and smoke rose in the distance as men with blankets collected the victims. Some were obviously beyond help and lay dead on the street.

The Israeli army said it targeted two senior Hamas officials in the attack on Al-Mawasi. Israeli media sources said Mohammed al-Deif, head of the Qassam Brigades, was among those targeted.

A military statement said that the army and air force had “carried out an attack in an area where two high-ranking Hamas terrorists and other terrorists were hiding among civilians” “based on precise intelligence information.”

Hamas dismissed this claim as a pretext to cover up the massacre of civilians.

“The occupying power’s claims that it targeted Palestinian leaders are false. This is not the first time that the (Israeli) occupying power has claimed that it targeted Palestinian leaders, which later turned out to be false. These false claims are intended to cover up the extent of the horrific massacre.”

Israel had in May called on Palestinians in the Rafah area to move to a designated humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi on the coast as troops entered the southern town of Rafah near the Egyptian border.

Later that month, a fire in a tent city in the area killed 45 people. The Israeli military claimed it targeted and killed two senior Hamas fighters in northwest Rafah in the attack that sparked the blaze, but added that the ammunition alone could not have caused the fire.

In another incident around the same time, a civil defense official in the Gaza Strip said an Israeli strike killed 21 people in a refugee camp west of Rafah. The Israeli army denied the allegations and said it “did not attack” the designated humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi.

At the end of June, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced that 22 people had been killed in an attack on the committee’s office in the Gaza Strip. The committee’s office was damaged and is surrounded by hundreds of displaced people who have sought shelter there.

At least 38,443 people have died in Israel’s latest war against Gaza, most of them civilians, according to a report released by the Gaza Health Ministry on Saturday afternoon.

The war has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s residents, leaving them without access to life-saving assistance in an area where much of the infrastructure has been destroyed.