‘Massacres’: Women, children killed as Israel bombs Gaza’s ‘safe zone’

Nearly 50 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Israel’s most recent attacks on Gaza, with the total death toll in the war-torn Palestinian territory reaching 46, 000. This is in addition to the reported deaths of many young women and children.

At least 49 Palestinians have been killed since early on Tuesday morning, according to medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera.

At least five children were killed in Israeli airstrikes on tents a shelter for displaced people in al-Mawasi, a desolate coastal region in southern Gaza, which the Israeli military has designated a “humanitarian safe zone.”

Despite hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians crammed into makeshift tent camps in al-Mawasi, Israel’s military has continually attacked the site, claiming, without providing evidence, that it is targeting Hamas.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said late on Tuesday that Israeli forces had carried out three “massacres” of Palestinian families in the past 24 hours, in which 31 people were killed and 57 were wounded.

The overall death toll from Israeli attacks on the territory had now risen to 45, 885 people killed and more than 109, 000 injured in the 15 months since Israel’s war on the enclave began, on October 7, 2023.

Five children were killed in the same tent as they sheltered together in al-Mawasi, according to Ahmed al-Farra, the director of the children’s ward at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital (AP) news agency.

Eight children and five women were among those who were rushed to the hospital on Tuesday, among others. According to the hospital, Israeli strikes also targeted a car and two residential areas in the Khan Younis region, adding that two of the victims were unidentified and the other two were men.

In the hospital’s morgue, bodies lay on stretchers or were stacked on metal shelves. Another dead child was laying on the lap of a young girl wearing a fuzzy pink sweatshirt. Other corpses, some disfigured by Israeli explosions, were covered in blankets, the AP reports.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in central Gaza, Tareq Abu Azzoum, said Israeli attacks had “ramped up” across Gaza over the past 12 hours, in particular on the al-Mawasi area.

Palestinians in Gaza’s continued attacks on humanitarian aid convoys and the hijacking of “Palestinian criminal gangs” of fuel tankers, which had put the region’s already struggling hospitals at risk, had also contributed to the hardships suffered by the country’s residents.

According to Abu Azzoum, the European Hospital in Khan Younis has already given an alert that it will run out of fuel in 24 hours. Al-Aqsa Hospital, in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, has also reported that it will be forced to cut electricity due to fuel shortages caused by Israel’s restrictions on delivery of supplies to Gaza and the hijackings.

The atmosphere is somewhat sombre, and there is a fear and anticipation of more air strikes looming on the horizon, according to Abu Azzoum.

In a statement, Tom Fletcher, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and the coordinator for emergency relief, described attempts by aid workers to save lives in Gaza as “breaking point.”

Three people were injured when Israeli forces recently attacked a food distribution center run by a partner of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). Additionally, Israeli troops had fired 16 bullets at a UN convoy that was clearly marked. And hardly any of the six fuel tankers had been hijacked by Palestinian gangs for humanitarian operations.

According to Fletcher, “These incidents are a dangerous pattern of sabotage and deliberate disruption.”

Israeli statements denigrate our aid workers even as they are attacked by the military. Community volunteers who accompany our convoys are being targeted”, he said.