Gaza civil defence says 20 killed in Israeli strike on displacement camp

Gaza's civil defence agency said Wednesday that 20 people, including five children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a displacement camp near Khan Yunis in the territory's south.

The agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP there were "20 martyrs, including five children, and dozens were injured after the occupation (Israel) bombed the tents of the displaced in the Al-Mawasi area" near Khan Yunis.

Asked about the strike, the Israeli military said it targeted "senior Hamas terrorists... in the humanitarian area in Khan Yunis".

It said there were "secondary explosions" following the strike, which they said indicated that weapons were stored there.

The Israeli military declared Al-Mawasi a safe "humanitarian zone" early in the war and ordered Gazans to evacuate there for their own safety.

Tens of thousands did, but the area has been repeatedly struck by Israeli forces, including in September in an attack that killed 19, according to the civil defence agency.

That attack drew international condemnation, including from Western nations and the Arab League.

In July, Israel hit the camp in a strike that the health ministry said killed 92 people. The Israeli military insisted it hit a Hamas compound and targeted two masterminds of the October 7 attack.

The Israeli military said it took "numerous steps" to "mitigate the risk of harming civilians" before the strike on Wednesday and blamed Hamas for using civilians as human shields.

Almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced by more than 14 months of war, sparked by the surprise Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has resulted in at least 44,532 deaths, mostly civilians, according to data from the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.