In a major action in recent times, an overnight Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone in the south of the Palestinian territory killed 40 people and wounded 60 others, Gaza's civil defence agency said on Sep 10.
Israeli army denied the charge saying it had targeted a Hamas command centre in the area. The strike hit Al-Mawasi in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have taken refuge.
Al-Mawasi was designated a safe zone by the Israeli military early in the war.
However, Israel's military has occasionally carried out operations in and around the area, including the most recent strike in July which it claimed killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif. The Gaza health authorities had said the July strike killed over 90 people.
“At least 40 martyred and 60 injured were recovered and shifted to nearby hospitals following the overnight strike,” Gaza civil defence official Mohammed Al-Mughair said in a statement.
"Our crews are still working to recover 15 missing people as a result of targeting the tents of the displaced in Mawasi, Khan Yunis," Mughair added.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal in a separate statement said that people sheltering in the camp had not been warned of the strike, adding a shortage of tools and equipment was hampering rescue operations.
"At least 40 tents were completely damaged," he said.
"There are entire families who disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre. The strike left behind three deep craters,” Basal added.
The Israeli military in a statement on Sep 10 said that its aircraft had "struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis".
"The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops," the statement added.
Hamas said in a statement on Sep 10 that claims that its fighters were present at the scene of the strike were "a blatant lie".
Israel has often accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, an accusation the group denies.
What led to the ongoing war
Hamas's Oct 7 strike on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza led to the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, including some hostages, official Israeli figures show.
Militants seized 251 hostages during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 which the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip has so far killed at least 40,988 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Most of the dead are women and children, according to the UN human rights office.
The vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million population has been displaced at least once during war for nearly a year, according to the United Nations.
From 1,200 inhabitants per square kilometre before the war, the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone now houses "between 30,000 and 34,000 people per square kilometre". The protected area shrank from 50 square kilometres to 41, according to the UN.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been mediating in efforts to forge a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, but peace talks remain stalled.
