Israeli bombs set tents ablaze and left deep craters in the earth as the army attacked Al-Mawasi, a designated 'safe zone', for the fifth time.
Displaced Palestinians inspect the damage from an Israeli airstrike, in Al-Mawasi, September 10, 2024.
Ruwaida Kamal Amer and Mahmoud Mushtaha report in +972 September 12, 2024
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Israeli missiles rained down on a designated “humanitarian zone” in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis. For months, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have taken shelter there upon Israel’s orders to evacuate from almost everywhere else in the Gaza Strip. But even in this supposed sanctuary, safety for Palestinians is an illusion, and the displaced remain as vulnerable as ever.
For three harrowing hours, search-and-rescue teams, illuminated only by the dim glow of flashlights and the occasional flare of burning wreckage, sifted through the sand, desperate to find survivors. Instead, they unearthed the bodies of men, women, and children who were torn apart and buried under the very earth on which they had sought refuge. Tents were set ablaze, and the bombs left deep craters in the earth.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the airstrikes killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens more. It was Israel’s fifth attack on the area since designating it a place of refuge, and Tuesday’s bombings brought the total death toll from these attacks to more than 150.
The Israeli military claimed that it had “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area.” Hamas denied the allegation.
Displaced Palestinians inspect the damage from an Israeli airstrike, in Al-Mawasi, September 10, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
One of the martyrs, Ahmed Al-Qadi, was only 3 years old. He had been living in Al-Mawasi with his mother and two siblings since early July, when Israeli forces invaded their neighborhood in Gaza City and arrested Ahmed’s father. On the night of the bombings, Ahmed’s mother, Fatima, was jolted awake by the sound of explosions.
“I woke up to a noise so loud that I thought it was the end of the world,” she told +972, her voice trembling. “When I looked around, my children were gone. I was surrounded by darkness, smoke, and screaming. I couldn’t see or breathe.”
Rescue workers found Ahmed hours later, buried under a mound of sand. His small body lay still, his face frozen in terror.
His two siblings, aged 6 and 8, survived the attack, but with severe injuries. “I found them covered in blood, their legs crushed,” Fatima recounted, tears streaming down her face. “Their upper bodies were above the sand, but their legs were trapped beneath it. I don’t know how we will ever recover from this.”
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