The Israeli army killed at least 39 Palestinians in attacks across the Gaza Strip overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, medical workers said. Among them are at least 20 people who were killed in the attack that set fire to tents housing displaced families in the overcrowded camp.
Residents carried a carpet-wrapped body from the charred remains of a temporary shelter in Mawasi, near the beach west of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have been staying for months, Reuters reported. Israel calls the area a humanitarian zone and has long advised people to take refuge there for their own safety.
Mourners said the latest attacks show that a new statement by human rights group Amnesty International that Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza, which Israel has strongly rejected, has come too late.
Medical workers in Gaza said that among the 20 dead in the Israeli attack were women and children. Israel said the attack targeted senior Hamas operatives, whom it did not name.
Later yesterday, the director of Kamal Advan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the north of the enclave, said a 16-year-old boy using a wheelchair was killed and several people, including medical workers, were wounded in Israeli drone fire on the medical facility.
In the attack on Mavasi, several large tents were set on fire, and the fire was fueled by explosions of cooking gas bottles and burning furniture of the refugees. Reuters reported that yesterday the area was littered with burnt clothes, mattresses and other belongings among the twisted structures of burnt shelters.
"We don't see anyone from the whole world standing with us or helping us in this situation. Let them stop this crazy war against us. Let them end the war," said Gaza resident Abu Kamal Al-Asar.
The attack occurred on the day Amnesty International released a report stating that Israel's actions in Gaza fit the definition of the crime of genocide. Israel strongly rejected this accusation and condemned Amnesty as a "deplorable and fanatical organization".
The United States of America announced that it does not agree with Amnesty's conclusion and that it still considers the accusations of genocide in Gaza to be unfounded.
Today is the 430th day of the war, and Israel has been carrying out massacres and genocide since the first ten days of the war
At a funeral in Khan Younis, where relatives wept over the bodies of people killed the day before, resident Abu Anas Mustafa called the Amnesty report "a victory for Palestinian diplomacy", although he assessed that it "arrived late".
"Today is the 430th day of the war, and Israel has been carrying out massacres and genocide since the first ten days of the war," he said.
Other Israeli strikes reported yesterday hit Gaza, where medical workers said one strike destroyed a house where an extended family was staying and damaged two neighboring houses, killing at least three people.
The Israeli military claims militants often use residential buildings, schools and hospitals as cover for operations. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminate attacks and ignoring the suffering of vulnerable civilians.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, three Palestinians were killed in yesterday's Israeli attack, medical workers said. Three people were killed in a separate airstrike in Shejaya, east of Gaza.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1.200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, Israel has almost completely destroyed the Gaza Strip, forcing almost the entire population of 2,3 million people to leave their homes. Authorities in Hamas-controlled territory say more than 44.500 Palestinians have been killed.
Bonus video:
