Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that Israel’s assault on the besieged territory killed at least 32 more Palestinians in the previous 24-hour period.
The latest killings bring the ministry’s death toll to 41,020, and the number of Palestinians wounded in Gaza since October 7 has reached 94,925 people. The numbers don’t include the 10,000 Palestinians who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble and don’t account for indirect deaths.
The 32 killed included 19 who were killed by Israeli strikes on the al-Mawasi tent camp for displaced Palestinians, which has been designated as a so-called “humanitarian zone” by the Israeli military but has been repeatedly targeted.
When the strikes first hit the tent camp, Gaza rescue workers said at least 40 were killed. Later, the Health Ministry put the death toll at 19 based on the number of bodies brought to the hospital and said the number could rise since more bodies are under the rubble or in the massive craters left by the attack.
“A number of victims are still under the rubble, under the sand, and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them and retrieve them, and they have not reached hospitals yet,” the ministry said.
Survivors of the Israeli attack on al-Mawasi said many women and children were killed and wounded. “We saw women cut in pieces, children cut in pieces and martyrs. There are still people missing. People are looking for them and they still have not found them yet,” Ola al-Shaer, who survived the strike, told Reuters.
Israel claimed that it targeted Hamas commanders and a “Hamas command center” but offered no evidence of the claim. Hamas denied that its fighters were in the tent camp.
“This is a clear lie that aims to justify these ugly crimes. The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or use these places for military purposes,” Hamas said.
