Israel strikes Gaza humanitarian area as Palestinians struggle to find true safe zone

An Israeli strike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza killed at least 19 people and wounded 60 early on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted senior Hamas militants with precise munitions.

The overnight strike occurred in Muwasi, a sprawl of crowded tent camps along the Gaza coast that Israel designated as a humanitarian zone for hundreds of thousands of civilians seeking shelter from the nearly year-old Israel-Hamas war.

Associated Press video shows three large craters at the scene. First responders dug through the sand and rubble with garden tools and their bare hands, using mobile phone flashlights until the sun came up searching for survivors.

“We were told to go to Muwasi, to the safe area. ... Look around you and see this safe place,” said Iyad Hamed Madi, who had been sheltering there.

“This is for my son,” he said, holding up a bag of diapers. “He’s 4 months old. Is he a fighter? There’s no humanity.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 19 people were killed in the strike, and that the toll may rise as more bodies are recovered. The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, had earlier said 40 people were killed. The Israeli military disputed that toll.

The ministry is also part of the Hamas-run government but its figures are widely seen as generally reliable. Neither the ministry nor the Civil Defense immediately responded to a request for comment on the discrepancy of their tolls.

“We were sleeping, and suddenly it was like a tornado,” Samar Moamer told the AP at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she was being treated for injuries from the strike. She said one of her daughters was killed and the other was pulled alive from the rubble.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants in a command-and-control center embedded in the area. It identified three of the militants, saying they were senior operatives who were directly involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack – which triggered the war – and other recent attacks.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, disputed the initial casualty reports in a post on the social media platform X, saying they “do not line up with the information available to the [Israeli army], the precise weapons used and the accuracy of the strike.”

Hamas released a statement denying any militants were in the area, calling the Israeli allegations a “blatant lie.” Neither Israel nor Hamas provided evidence to substantiate their claims.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants often operate in residential areas and are known to position tunnels, rocket launchers, and other infrastructure near homes, schools, and mosques.

In July, Israel carried out a strike in the humanitarian zone that killed at least 90 Palestinians. The military said it targeted and killed Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, but Hamas says Mr. Deif is still alive.

International law allows for strikes on military targets in areas where civilians are present, provided the force used is proportionate to the military objective – something that is often disputed and would need to be settled in a court, which almost never happens.

The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Israeli evacuation orders, which now cover around 90% of the territory, have pushed hundreds of thousands of people into Muwasi, where aid groups have struggled to provide even basic services.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count, but says women and children make up just over half of the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.

Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.

The United States and mediators Egypt and Qatar have spent much of this year trying to broker an agreement for a cease-fire and the release of the hostages, but the talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of making new and unacceptable demands.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, speaking at a news conference in London with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said the continued violence underscored how important it is to forge a cease-fire.

“The shocking deaths in Khan Younis only reinforce how desperately needed that cease-fire is,” Mr. Lammy said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Monday that conditions are ripe for at least a six-week pause in the fighting that would include the release of many of the hostages still held in Gaza. However, he would not commit to a permanent end to the fighting – a central Hamas demand.

The war has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis, and aid groups have struggled to operate because of ongoing fighting, Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order. Experts say Gaza is at high risk of famine.

The main United Nations agency providing aid to Palestinians said Israeli troops stopped a convoy of staff taking part in a polio vaccination campaign for more than eight hours on Monday, despite it coordinating with the military.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on the social media platform X that the convoy was stopped at gunpoint and that “heavy damage was caused by bulldozers” to the U.N. armored vehicles. The staff were later released and the vaccination campaign continued as planned.

The Israeli military said it held up the convoy based on intelligence indicating the presence of suspected militants. Israel has long accused UNRWA of having ties to militant groups, allegations the U.N. agency denies.

The vaccination drive, launched after doctors discovered the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has destroyed the health care system.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writers Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem, Josef Federman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.