At least 90 people killed after an Israeli attack on humanitarian safe zone in al-Mawasi. Source: Eman Mohammed via Wikimedia Commons.
Countries across the world have condemned Israel after dozens were killed in an Israeli military attack on a designated humanitarian safe zone in Gaza on Saturday.
At least 90 Palestinians were killed in the attack and 300 others were injured, according to Palestinian authorities.
Israel officials said the attack in al-Mawasi targeted Hamas military commander, Mohammed Deif.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters it was “not absolutely certain” if Deif had been killed.
Hamas rejected the premise of the attack as “false”, saying that “defenceless civilians” were killed in the assault.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency showed Palestinians sifting through remains of the wreckage after the attack.
A similar incident happened last week, when Israeli military targeted schools sheltering displaced Palestinian, killing dozens of women and children.
Israel also used a similar justification for the incident, claiming they were targeting compounds holding Hamas militants who were using the schools as a shelter.
Israel’s actions have drawn widespread condemnation from world leaders and human rights observers across the world.
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign affairs said the attack hit tents of “displaced persons in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, in an area that Israel had previously classified as safe, which resulted in the death and injury of dozens of Palestinians”.
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement strongly condemning Israel’s “ongoing violations against the rights of Palestinian citizens”, which added serious “complications” to peace and arranging a ceasefire pact.
Qatar called the “shocking and brutal massacre” at al-Mawasi “a new chapter in the ongoing series of crimes” committed by Israel against Palestinians.
It said the attack would ruin chances for continuing peace, “thereby expanding the cycle of violence in the region and threatening international peace and security”.
The US’ president has yet to respond to Saturday’s attack, but Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said on X that “Israel is continuing a horrific assault on Gaza, forcing the closure of medical facilities and even restricting the entry of medical equipment.”
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the attack “a phase of the Netanyahu government’s effort to annihilate the Palestinians entirely”, and called on countries supporting and helping Israel to end the “barbarism”.
“The fact that Israel once again opted for bloodshed when it was expected to respond to Hamas’s positive response to the ceasefire [proposal] is evidence that the Netanyahu government is trying to prevent negotiations for a permanent ceasefire,” the ministry said.
Iran’s Ministry of Affairs spokesperson labelled the attack the “latest crime in the series of crimes committed by the child-killing Zionist regime”.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority (PA) — a governing body that oversees parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank — said that the attack was a “continuation of the genocidal war against our people, and the US administration bears responsibility for the continuation of the massacres.”
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah also condemned the attack.
“Today, the occupation carried out a large massacre against displaced people in al-Mawasi in Khan Younis. Then it justified it by saying it wanted to target [Hamas] leaders,” he said.
“Are there worse injustices and oppression in the world?”
The UNs secretary general Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked and saddened” by the killings.
Malaysia, Colombia, Oman, The UAE, and Saudi Arabia have also expressed their growing outrage at the attack.
