Israeli strikes on a Gaza tent camp kill at least 21 people

Israeli airstrikes tore through a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza on Wednesday, sparking fires and killing at least 21 people, according to the head of a nearby hospital, in the latest assault on a sprawling tent city that Israel designated a humanitarian safe zone but has repeatedly targeted.

The strike on the Muwasi tent camp was one of several deadly assaults across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. An Israeli attack in central Gaza killed at least 10 more people, including four children, according to Palestinian medics.

Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, launched after Hamas’ October 2023 attack, shows no signs of ending after nearly 14 months. Hamas is still holding dozens of Israeli hostages, and most of Gaza’s population has been displaced and is reliant on international food aid to survive. Israel is also pressing a major offensive in the isolated north, where experts say Palestinians might be experiencing famine.

The Biden administration has pledged to make a new push for a Gaza ceasefire now that there’s a truce in Lebanon between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, ending more than a year of cross-border fighting. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump demanded this week the release of hostages held by Hamas before he is sworn into office in January.

Wednesday’s strike in Muwasi — a desolate area with few public services that holds hundreds of thousands of displaced people — wounded at least 28 people, according to Atif al-Hout, the director of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

An Associated Press journalist at the hospital counted at least 15 bodies, but said reaching a precise number was difficult because many of the dead were dismembered, some without heads or badly burned. In the morgue, an infant’s blackened hand and face peeked out from beneath a heavy blanket used to transport bodies to the hospital.

Sadeia al-Rahel, a 57-year-old woman, said her family has been eating grass, leaves, and animal feed for two months due to the lack of food aid in the north.

“It was like doomsday,” said a wounded woman, Iman Jumaa, who held back tears as she described how the strike killed her father, her brothers and her brothers’ children.

Videos and photos of the strike shared widely on social media showed flames and a column of black smoke rising into the night sky, as well as twisted metal tent frames and shredded fabric. Palestinian men searched through the still-burning wreckage, shouting, “Over here guys!” Further away, civilians stood at a distance, observing the destruction.

The Israeli military claimed the strikes had set off secondary blasts, indicating explosives present in the area had detonated. It was not possible to independently confirm the Israeli claims, and the strikes could also have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the camp.

Shortly after the strike, Al-Awda Hospital said two people had been killed and 38 wounded in an attack on a residential block in the Nuseirat refugee camp. 

Previous Israeli strikes on tent camps in Gaza have drawn widespread international outrage, such as when a wounded student’s last moments were caught on video as he burned to death in a tent outside a hospital.

In northern Gaza, dozens of Palestinian families said Israel’s expanding offensive had forcibly displaced them from schools-turned-shelters. Associated Press footage showed people on the road Wednesday leaving Beit Lahia, many crowded onto donkey carts with their belongings in their arms. Others walked on foot.

“This morning a quadcopter (drone) detonated four bombs at the school. There were people injured, human remains — we left with nothing,” said Sadeia al-Rahel.

The 57-year-old said her family has been eating grass, leaves, and animal feed for two months due to the lack of food aid in the north.

The amount of aid entering Gaza plunged in October, and hunger is widespread across the territory, even in central Gaza where aid groups have more access. Humanitarian organizations say Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order make it difficult to deliver assistance. Israel has said it is working to increase the flow of aid.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,500 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.