‘We smelled the stench of burning human flesh’: Israel burns 8 children to death in Gaza ‘safe zone’
Relatives and loved ones of Palestinians burned alive in Israeli attacks on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Mawasi mourn over the deceased at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, 17 April 2025
Tareq S Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 18 April 2025:
Umm Ibrahim Abu Shaar, 49, sits in the European Hospital in Khan Younis, next to the bloodied bodies of her family members. They were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment for the displaced in the Mawasi “safe zone” in Khan Younis on Thursday morning, April 17. The tents caught fire and their occupants were burned alive. This scene has become a regular occurrence in Gaza.
At the site of the bombing west of Khan Younis, residents gathered around the bombed tents, which were reduced to piles of ash and scraps mixed with blood. They try to collect the remains of the martyrs, walking beside the bombed tents with extreme care and caution.
Residents and rescue teams retrieved 15 bodies, including those of eight children. All of them were charred black. Among them was a mother and her three children who were burned beyond recognition, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Mondoweiss.
The Civil Defense described it as a heinous crime that took the lives of 15 martyrs, “most of them women and children.”
Yousef Abu al-Rus, a witness to the bombing, said via video testimony for Mondoweiss that the Israeli army targeted four tents inhabited by four families with a single missile. He described how the missile sparked an intense fire that residents could not extinguish.
“We heard the sound of an explosion, and then intense and strong flames erupted,” Abu al-Rus said. “We couldn’t get close enough to help them. We got as close as we could, but we saw the women and children burning and dying right before our eyes. We saw them, and our children saw and heard everything.”