GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defence agency has said 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.
Body of hostage recovered
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a statement that the body of a hostage had been recovered from the Gaza Strip.
“In a special operation, the body of hostage Itay Svirsky, who was kidnapped on October 7 (2023) from kibbutz Beeri and murdered in captivity by Hamas terrorists in January 2024, was brought back,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.
The body of Svirsky, who was 38 when he was kidnapped during Hamas’s surprise attack, was recovered in an operation by the Shin Bet internal security agency, aided by the military, both organisations confirmed in a joint statement.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group for relatives of those abducted to Gaza, welcomed the return of Svirsky’s body while demanding the immediate release of the remaining hostages.
“The families continue to wait for their loved ones after 425 days of captivity. Many hostages remain alive but in grave danger, requiring immediate release for urgent medical care and rehabilitation. Others must be returned for dignified burial,” it said.
Separately on Wednesday, the Israeli military released a statement on its investigation into the deaths of six hostages, whose bodies were recovered in August.
The military said they were likely executed by their captors as Israel struck near their location in February.
“According to the most plausible scenario, the terrorists shot the hostages close to the time of the strike,” the military said.
During the October 7, 2023 attack, militants kidnapped 251 people, 96 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli military.
Svirsky’s is the 38th body of a hostage to be brought back from the Gaze Strip.
