At least 40 people were killed and 60 others were injured in an Israeli air-strike on a tent camp at Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis of the southern Gaza Strip before dawn on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The air-strike ripped a huge crater, set tents ablaze and buried Palestinian families alive under sand, according to Palestinian officials.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the number of fatalities from this air-strike at more than 40. It said that at least 60 others were wounded in the strikes and many remained missing.
"We were in the tent, when it was between 01:00 and 02:00. A warplane came and fired the first missile, leaving a huge explosion. The tent started shaking and debris was flying everywhere. We stayed where we were for about 15 to 30 minutes before the rescue team arrived. My wife and I hunched over to keep the tent from collapsing until after five or six more missiles were fired and rescue workers arrived. We were evacuated from the tent, only to find our neighbors all dead with their arms and heads blown off," said Firas, a homeless man.
Al-Mawasi is a vast camp on sandy soil where the Israeli military has told hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to shelter since ordering them out of their homes.
"We fled Rafah and they (Israeli troops) told us to go to Al-Mawasi area, saying it was a safe place. They even stressed that we should not go anywhere else but Al-Mawasi because it was safe. So we came here. But we find it is not safe here. There is no safe place in Gaza, and we don't know where to go," said Mohammed Abu Labda, another homeless person.
