Israeli air strikes on the al-Mawasi camp in southern Gaza have killed at least 90 people and wounded 300 others, according to Palestinian health officials.
The attack on Saturday on the Israeli-designated “safe zone”, located west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, involved fighter jets and drones, according to witnesses.
Israeli officials have said the attack targeted two senior members of Hamas’s military wing, claiming they were hiding among civilians.
Hamas has dismissed this claim as “false”, saying it is a way of covering up the “horrific massacre” at a location where displaced Palestinians were urged to seek shelter after receiving orders to evacuate their homes elsewhere in the Strip.
Here’s everything you need to know about the attack and its aftermath:
What’s the situation on the ground?
The attack killed at least 90 civilians in a densely populated area sheltering about 80,000 people, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Israeli warplanes hit tents housing displaced Palestinians and a water distillation unit.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the area was hit by “five bombs and five missiles”.
Displaced people sheltering in the area said their tents were torn down by the force of the strikes and have described bodies and body parts strewn on the ground.
“I couldn’t even tell where I was or what was happening,” said Sheikh Youssef, a resident of Gaza City who is displaced in the al-Mawasi area.
“I left the tent and looked around. All the tents were knocked down, body parts, bodies everywhere, elderly women thrown on the floor, young children in pieces,” he told the Reuters news agency.
The injured were taken to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which is severely understaffed and lacks critical equipment. Rescue workers say the Israeli army attacked crews who were on their way to help victims.
An official at Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera that medical teams did not have the capacity to receive any more wounded patients as civil defence teams continued to work on search and rescue operations at the site of the attack.
Mohammad Subeh, an emergency doctor working at one of the field hospitals near al-Mawasi, told Al Jazeera that rescuers were “digging people out of the ground”.
The al-Mawasi area has been repeatedly attacked by the Israeli military, with a strike in late May that hit tents housing displaced families killing at least 21 people.
What are Israeli officials saying?
The Israeli military claimed in a statement that it acted based on “precise intelligence” to hit an area where “two senior Hamas terrorists” and additional fighters hid among civilians. It described the location of the strike as “an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, and sheds”.
The figures targeted were Rafa’a Salameh, commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, and Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’s military wing – both accused of masterminding the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Speaking at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “not absolutely certain” that the Hamas officials were killed in the attack but maintained that it had nonetheless been beneficial to Israel.
“Just the attempt to assassinate Hamas commanders delivers a message to the world, a message that Hamas’s days are numbered,” he said. “And this is what I will be doing next week at the US Congress. I will deliver Israel’s message to the United States and the entire world.”
Netanyahu said he approved the strike after receiving satisfactory information on collateral damage and the type of ammunition to be used. He added that the Israeli military would “one way or another” kill all Hamas leaders.
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said Netanyahu’s directive to “target and kill Hamas officials wherever they are”, claiming that it was carrying out precise and targeted attacks, had repeatedly been used as a justification to strike civilians in densely populated Gaza.
What are Palestinian leaders saying?
Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s deputy head in Gaza, claimed that Netanyahu had wished to declare a “fake victory” and that claims about targeting the Hamas leaders were false.
“Mohammad Deif is listening to you now and mocking your false, empty statements,” he told Al Jazeera Arabic.
Hamas had earlier issued a statement on Telegram calling on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem to “mobilise” in response to the attack.
“We call on all resistance brigades to mobilise for Gaza and in loyalty to the blood of the martyrs,” the statement read.
The armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said in a statement that Israel was “continuing the war of extermination against our people”.
“This crime confirms that the occupation has disregarded all international norms and covenants,” the PIJ said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa condemned Israel’s “genocidal crimes” in Gaza, saying that Palestinians were “going through a very difficult stage”.
Mustafa said Israel’s actions were more broadly targeting the Palestinian project as a whole and included Israel’s goal of establishing an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Hanan Ashrawi, a scholar and activist, said the attack on al-Mawasi had “turned all of Gaza into one massive death zone”.
“American bombs and shells rain down on Gaza while the Israeli government and thugs succeed in preventing any form of medical, food, or fuel supplies from reaching the devastated population,” she said in a post on X.
Today’s horrific massacre & savage bombing of displaced Palestinians in Israeli designated “safe” zones of Muassi, Khan Younis is the latest in an escalation that has turned all of Gaza into one massive death zone. American bombs & shells rain down on Gaza while the Israeli…
— Hanan Ashrawi (@DrHananAshrawi) July 13, 2024
What’s the situation under international law?
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, told Al Jazeera the attacks may have breached international law.
“People in a safe area are protected under international law. If there is a military target within a safe zone, the action has to be proportional to the military advantage that is going to be achieved. Killing 70 people for one is not proportional,” she said.
“I’m disgusted by the tolerance of Israel’s impunity which is enabling the genocidal war,” she added.
In March, the UN expert issued a report that stated there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
How is the world reacting?
Egypt
“We condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli raids on the al-Mawasi area,” Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The ministry emphasised that “ongoing violations against the rights of Palestinian citizens” add serious “complications” to achieving a ceasefire deal.
Qatar
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said that “the repetition of the heinous crimes proves day after day the need for urgent international action to immediately end this brutal aggression and provide protection for the Palestinian people”.
It also warned that Israel’s “recklessness” would undermine international efforts to implement a two-state solution “and thus pave the way for the expansion of the cycle of violence in the region and the threat to international peace and security”.
Saudi Arabia
The Foreign Ministry called for “activating international accountability mechanisms” against Israeli abuses. “The Foreign Ministry condemns in strongest terms the continuation of genocidal massacres against the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli war machine,” it said in a statement.
Iran
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said the attack was the “latest crime in the series of crimes committed by the child-killing Zionist regime”, in a post on X.
“The Zionists have once again brutally shown that in order to compensate for the defeats suffered on the battlefield with the resistance, they do not recognise any humane and moral red line towards the defenceless residents of the Gaza Strip, but they must know that insisting on this path is nothing but a wider global hatred.”
Jordan
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it condemned the attack on “displaced persons’” tents. Spokesperson Sufyan al-Qudah said that Jordan denounces Israel’s continued violation of international law and stressed the need for the international community to act to bring an end to Palestinian suffering.
Colombia
President Gustavo Petro expressed outrage at what he called “the greatest injustice”.
“I am even more outraged because this destruction of international human law is a prelude to the barbarism they want to unleash on all the oppressed people of the earth,” he said in a post on X.
