Israeli forces have once again attacked civilians hiding in a so-called humanitarian safe zone.
At least 11 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on makeshift tents housing refugees in a designated humanitarian safe zone in southern Gaza, local medics and media outlets reported.
It was reported that three children and two women were among the 11 killed in the early morning attack on Thursday in the al-Mawash area, which the Israeli military declared as a ‘safe zone’ in the early days of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Videos of the aftermath of the attack showed people searching for survivors among burning tents, scattered debris and clotheslines that residents of the displaced people’s camp had hung out to dry their clothes.
Reuters reported that 15 people were injured in the attack, but details about their conditions were not released.
The Israeli military has not commented on recent attacks on humanitarian areas, which have been mercilessly targeted by Israeli warplanes, drones and artillery, including the most recent attack on December 22 that killed eight people, including two children.
Days ago, Israeli tanks advanced from the southern city of Rafah into al-Mawash, forcing dozens of families to flee north for fear of imminent attacks.
The Israeli military said a missile attack on a tent in al-Mawash on December 3 killed at least 20 people and injured others. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas officials.
On New Year’s Day, Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip left at least 26 people dead, including four children, with a woman reportedly among the dead. Ten people were missing in the rubble of the building destroyed in this attack.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip said 15 people, all believed to be civilians, were killed in a single attack on a house where refugees had taken refuge in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military gave no warning of an attack on al-Mawash early Thursday morning, but had earlier ordered all residents of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza to evacuate from three areas targeted for attack.
Israeli military Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee described the warning to residents to flee Jabalia to Gaza City as “anesthesia before the attack.”
“Once again, terrorist organizations are firing rockets in your area,” he said in a social media post. Under siege by Israeli forces for nearly three months, two U.S. defense think tanks said this week that Palestinian fighters had launched a coordinated “multiple wave attack” against Israeli forces in Jabalia. Palestinian military operations have taken place across the Gaza Strip in recent months.
The death toll in the first two days of 2025 adds to the at least 45,553 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since it launched a punitive war in the Strip in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023. Southern Israel.
