Horror: Israeli Strike on Crowded Gaza Camp Leaves 40 Dead, 60 Injured

An Israeli airstrike on a densely populated tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Gaza killed at least 40 people and injured 60 more early Tuesday, according to Palestinian officials. Israel claimed the attack targeted key Hamas militants, which Hamas denied.

The strike was one of the deadliest in Muwasi, a stretch of makeshift camps along the Gaza coast, which Israel had designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians fleeing the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Gaza’s Civil Defense reported that rescue teams recovered 40 bodies from the scene and were still searching for others, noting that entire families had been killed.

Footage captured by an Associated Press camera operator revealed three large craters at the site, where people sifted through sand and rubble by the light of their mobile phones. In one instance, they uncovered body parts, including what appeared to be a human leg.

Attaf al-Shaar, displaced from Rafah, said the strike occurred just after midnight, causing a fire. “The people were buried in the sand. They were retrieved as body parts,” she recounted to an AP reporter.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of three medical facilities that received the wounded, reported that around 20 bodies were brought in following the airstrike.

The Israeli military stated that the target was Hamas militants operating from a command-and-control center and insisted that it used precision strikes to minimize civilian casualties. Israel maintains it avoids harming civilians and places the blame on Hamas, accusing the group of using residential areas as cover for military operations.

Hamas denied that any of its militants were in the area. Both sides have yet to provide evidence supporting their claims.

The war has resulted in widespread devastation across Gaza, displacing about 90% of its 2.3 million residents, many of whom have been forced to flee multiple times. Israeli evacuation orders, which now cover much of the territory, have pushed hundreds of thousands into Muwasi, an area of overcrowded tent camps. Aid organizations have struggled to provide even basic services there, and Israel has occasionally targeted the area despite its designation as a humanitarian zone.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the war has claimed more than 40,000 Palestinian lives since it began. In contrast, Hamas-led militants are believed to have killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during their October 7 attack, and they abducted 250 others. While some hostages have been released in a prior cease-fire, approximately 100 remain in captivity, with a third thought to be deceased.

Efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to mediate a cease-fire and secure the hostages’ release have been ongoing, but talks have repeatedly stalled, with both sides accusing each other of making unreasonable demands.

Gaza is facing a severe humanitarian crisis, worsened by continued fighting, Israeli restrictions, and the collapse of law and order. The international body responsible for monitoring hunger crises warned in June that Gaza is at high risk of famine.

On Monday, the main U.N. agency aiding Palestinians reported that Israeli troops detained a convoy involved in a polio vaccination campaign for over eight hours, despite coordinating with the Israeli military. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the convoy was halted at gunpoint, and U.N. staff were threatened with arrest. The incident occurred after the group had been administering vaccines in northern Gaza.

Lazzarini confirmed that the convoy eventually returned to a U.N. base, but it remained uncertain if the vaccination campaign could continue as planned on Tuesday. Israel’s military has not responded to the incident. The campaign, launched after Gaza recorded its first polio case in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children amidst the ongoing war that has devastated the region’s healthcare infrastructure.