Israeli air strikes on the s0-called “safe zone” in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday killed at least 12 displaced Palestinians, including several children and the enclave’s police chief, in the latest targeting of the local civil authority.
Major General Mahmoud Salah, director general of police in the Gaza Strip, and Major General Hussam Shahwan, a member of the Police Command Council, were killed in the attack on Khan Younis’s al-Mawasi, which Israel had designated a “humanitarian zone”, the Gaza-based government media office said.
“The occupation is insisting on spreading chaos in the strip and deepening the human suffering of citizens,” the office said in a statement.
“It is ignoring all international and humanitarian laws, which consider police a civil protection force that plays a humanitarian role in helping citizens and providing services to them in light of the tragic circumstances they are suffering,” it added.
The attack also killed three of Waleed al-Bardaweel’s sons and severely wounded another. His three slain children were Mohammed, 13, Ahmed, 11, and Abdul Rahman, seven.
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“The Israeli army called this place a safe zone. Their claims are all lies and slander,” the bereaved father of six told Middle East Eye.
Ziad al-Lulu, a witness, said people were sleeping when the strikes hit the makeshift camp at 1am.
“The next thing we knew, our world was engulfed in flames,” al-Lulu told MEE. “Children were torn apart, women were torn apart, it was like the day of judgment.”
He said no warnings were given before the attack.
Aida Muhammad Zanoon, 65, who lost family members in the attack, said it was a reminder of the “nightmare” that people in Gaza live every day.
“Look at the blood,” she said, pointing at a bloodied mattress where a four-year-old child slept.
“Until when should we be silent? We are living in horror, in a nightmare, in a shocking dream,” she said.
At least 52 people have been killed across the beseiged enclave since the early hours of Thursday, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Many of the victims are children.
Within just one hour, Israeli shelling targeted several areas, leading to at least three mass deaths.
‘This is our new year: blood, dismemberment, killings, hunger, cold’
– Aida Muhammad Zanoon, displaced Palestinian
Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said that Israeli forces are “carrying out cleansing and extermination operations throughout the Gaza Strip”.
“The [Israeli] occupation fires on every spot in the Gaza Strip amid catastrophic conditions,” Basal added.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have taken shelter in al-Mawasi after Israel ordered them to leave northern Gaza soon after the war broke out in October.
Since Israel began attacks in the southern city of Rafah in May, the number of displaced in al-Mawasi has doubled.
Despite it being designated as a “humanitarian zone”, the area has experienced devastating attacks.
“There are no safe zones, no safe zones at all,” Zanoon told MEE. “There is no safety except in the mercy of Allah [God].
“This is our new year: blood, dismemberment, killings, hunger, cold.”