Israel kills 248 Palestinians in ‘safe zones’ as rights groups condemn siege

Several rights groups say their researchers have documented at least 15 attacks by the Israeli military on the tents of internally displaced people in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, and Rafah, which had previously been declared a humanitarian zone.

Palestinian and international organisations added that majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

These attacks “resulted in the killing of more than 248 Palestinians, including a large number of children and women, in addition to more than 500 wounded”, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, al-Haq and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said in a statement.

“This is not the first time that Israeli forces have targeted al-Mawasi, which is crowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced people, who live in dilapidated tents, adjacent to each other, without essential services,” they added.

Overnight, the army bombed displaced people’s tents in al-Mawasi, killing at least 19 people.

The organisations refuted Israel’s justifications of this attack and others – that it was targeting Palestinian fighters – adding that targeted killings violate international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

“Israel has used massive firepower in targeting the tents of the displaced without any consideration or value for the lives of civilians, including children,” they said.

Al Jazeera’s correspondents from the besieged Strip further reported that an Israeli bombardment of the Bureij refugee camp had killed at least one girl and wounded several other people.

The wounded are currently arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah.

Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, killing at least 41,020 Palestinians and injuring 94,925 others.

At least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

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